LKG admission - 2012

I have been busy with a lot of things ; mainly for ashwamedh's school admission, I was looking for schools which are nearby my house. So they were Bhavan's & Maharishi. Even though I was cool about this whole thing, moms in ash's school (Scope School) talks were making me feel stress. Funny part I was cool, I got worried thinking why I'm so cool about this school thing unlike other mothers. The amount of stress which is felt is unbelievable I'm very sure we won't be this stressed for their college admission. Schools asking for attestation on birth certificate, address proof documents, each schools asked for different documents, running for attestation was a huge stress. Some schools were asking PAN card copy, IT balance sheet, salary pay slips etc., and these are asked for WHAT? LKG-Admission.

Getting the forms were ok, but submission was HELL to go through schools had 2kms more long queues to submit, parents were made to stand in long queues in hot sun once the time was over they closed the gates & asked the parents to come next day. Sometimes after a long wait, when you go near the counter they ask you to go get some document or other, suddenly document which is not mentioned in the main form were asked. We were all applying 1000’s of applications for limited seats which were 25 / 35 seats only available. What is this trend &where are we heading was the question which kept occurring in my mind? Seeing mothers & fathers going through this kind of stress, sleepless nights to download application or stand in long queues in the mid of the night to get the application in my mind is this stress all worth it was something that kept propping?

Sometimes it makes you to stop & think it is better to start a school, earlier getting into schools weren’t this big a stress. I think our parents selected one school which was near our home & applied, there we studied. Today education is not service it is highly profitable business. These were same schools which existed in our neighborhood we studied there; just in few years getting a seat of our kid was suddenly very difficult close to impossible.

As I stood in queues to submit application I could see so many similar faces who I have met in another school while submission. All were praying, fearing for what if they don’t get a seat. This entire episode has been quite an experience; I spoke to many parents as I stood in the queue just to kill time. I chose 2 schools & applied; there were no strings attached for my selection, but many parents did have quite a few reasons. It was quite surprising each parent had done so much of research on each school; each parent had different perspective on different ones to me hearing them for the first time were quite interesting to hear: - Many choices were based on various factors as below

• Status of the crowd studying in that school.
• Community of the crowd like if they were domination of Sindhi’s or Marvadi’s a few parents didn’t apply.
• A few wanted high standard of education so that their kids end up in profession studies in famous institutions.
• Some wanted only education, other group wanted extra-curricular activities.
• Some wanted good English to be spoken by their kids.
• A few had restriction based on the fees.
• A few checked whether they had any sports coaching.
• Many had nothing but to just get a seat nothing more or less that’s all they wanted .
• Many schools had Pre-KG in their schools so getting a LKG seat was a challenge, so parents were running to get their kid a seat in Pre-KG itself so that till 12th std there are no worries.
• This year, Right to Education is getting implemented because of this seat are being allocated based on community.  Parents were talking on those lines.
• Many didn’t want matriculation board as the standard was being reduced. There would be no state board anymore it-seems. So many parents opted for Central board & there is a huge competition to getting into a good school. 

Over & above this I heard seats are given based on donations, many started thinking whether they can afford. Many said seats are given to wealthier parents, seeing work profiles of parents, others said preference to mothers who are homemaker etc. No-one was sure of anything but talks continued to increase the stress levels of parents which led to anxiety & fear of getting a seat for their kids. I think it’s easier to get a seat in politics or any college made me laugh as I think it made me think, are we having a lot of kids around & fewer seats? Especially areas like Kilpauk, Shenoy Nagar, Anna Nagar East, Kellys had only 3 good choices which were Bhavan's, Maharishi, & Chinmaya.  There were literally 2000 applications being applied for may be less than 100 seats, so this itself gets tough. 

    I saw this in the notice board of a famous school when i had gone to get LKG application

• No.of sections - 8
• No.of seats - 320
• No.of Seats of already existing PreKG students - 215
• No. of seats based for siblings, RTE, Old student's kid – 80
• No.of seats in general quote - 25.   
• Criteria - students should be 3yrs & 6 months by 1st Apr 2012, cut off birth date is Sep 2009. Kids who are coming within 3kms only should apply.

We need to overlook & analyze where is this trend heading? Instead of enjoying this phase, all parents are stressed, only solution is to have a broader perspective & flexibility to accept, increase the seats availability. Going will get tougher as years pass by. Now this worries me what will I need to face for Alankritha's admission. I hope for the best :)