Nursery admission criteria rattle parents in Gurugram

Sumedha Sharma

Tribune News Service

Gurugram, July 7

As the admission process commences in Gurugram for the session, 2021-2022, parents seeking admission of wards to nursery have been rattled by the admission criteria. Several parents have taken to social media highlighting how schools are seeking and out to asses them on information like genetic test results, grandparents CV, mother’s age at the time of pregnancy, pregnancy complications and learning disabilities or special abilities in the family.

The issue has left many parents miffed who have demanded a uniform admission criteria for all schools.

“The admission season is here. Elite schools in Gurugram are now asking for genetic test results, CV of grandparents, mother’s age during pregnancy, complications if any and more. Its blatant classicism and casteism,” tweeted a parent.

The parents are being asked not only to submit their educational qualifications, but also extra-curricular activities or any social work they are involved in. Some schools are even insisting on the parents providing recommendation letters from their friends and neighbours about the social behaviour of the child.

“All that should matter to the school is if the child is of the right age, has basic skills and if we can pay the fees. Ironically, even after paying lakhs we are subjected to this nuisance. I am a software engineer and my wife works for WHO. My father is a farmer and my mother is not very educated. So despite having everything, my child might not get admission as his grandparents are not big shots,” said another parent.

While all schools have their own criteria, eight schools, including day boarding and residential, have come under the scanner owing to this criteria and only Shiv Nadar has proactively issued a statement reacting to the social media post.

“Shiv Nadar School has a robust admission process to allow equal opportunities to students of all backgrounds. Our admission process includes collecting information on professional backgrounds of parents and grandparents to help us leverage their experience in our teaching and learning process. For example, a judge or a lawyer can talk to our students about law, while a farmer can help our students learn about agriculture” reads an official statement issued by the school.

“If they want children to benefit from the grandparents such questions are asked after the admission is done and not prior to it. The state needs to intervene and get uniform rules like Delhi,” reacted a parent who plans to apply for the admission on August 19.

None of the other schools issued any statement while the principal of one of the schools on condition of anonymity said, “We take no aid from the state and as per law have every right to set up our admission criteria. Every school needs to put filters to maintain standards.”