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NURSERY OF ‘QUOTA’

Warning: Nursery admissions in Delhi will make you fee like a fresher who is going to college on a first day. Nervous, Anxious, restless are just the small words, its way beyond your imagination. And we are not trying to scare you!!!  

Nursery 03After a two-month long battle, chaos and hard work (Yes I mean it) I sit relaxed as my child finally gets through the toughest task of admission process. All said and done but a feeling of disappointment and distress still bothers me. It is the system, which has shaken my belief in its sacrosanctity. It’s torturous admission process has trembled my love for the city called dilwaalon ki dilli. Yet I decide to pen down whatever we (my hubby & me) went through in last two months. I am not writing to lower your morale or diminish your patriotic feelings for your ‘Dilli meri jaan’. This is just to show what a parent goes through to give their child a basic education, needless to say ‘A fight for A to Z’.

 Like any other parent we were quite calm and stress-free, as the number of schools around us never gave any feeling of discomfort or worry. Being surrounded by so many good schools will definitely never give you jitters or nightmares. Being an Indian we are quite used to of saying Arae ho hi jayega kahi na khai. We were living with this attitude till the day an eye opener came via our close friends mother. Meeting her was the best day in our life, I must confess. I was sitting completely spellbound as she was narrating the horrifying experiences, people had at the time of nursery admissions last year!!

 We waited anxiously for the D-day. Sleeves rolled up, socks pulled up. Literally I mean. Finally the date of sale of forms was announced. Sigh! We felt. Before I go further let me remind you that the whole process demands hell lot of time. So if you are working then better take a month’s off or be ready to work from home!

 Nursery 01On a very first day, we were quite ready with a list of schools and their addresses in our hands. Thankfully this year schools followed DOE’s strict guidelines by selling the admission form in only Rs 25. Though still one or two schools tried to sell the prospectus for Rs 500. Mind you very well, that it’s not necessary that every school will bring out the forms on the announced date. This year some schools started the process bit late than others. Though this practice of selling forms on different dates as decided by the schools was pretty exhausting and made the whole process tiresome.

 As suggested by our dear aunt, everyday in the morning after dropping our child to the play school we were collecting forms from every possible school. At the end we were seen with a bunch of forms in our hands. All this while we also dealt with a annoying process of online registrations. Online registrations might save your travel time but all the more increases your area of confusion. It looks very simple but believe me its not. Some schools, after filling the form online, demanded a visit to the school for submitting the documents!

Every school has its own parameter and idea of point system. This year, in general, the documents which were required were like child’s birth certificate, address proof, health certificate and last but not the least an affidavit by a notary proving that it’s your first child!!! Yes, let the notary decide please.

 The point system, which leaves one wanting for more is another big deciding factor of your child’s destiny. This year schools came out with a very creative idea of giving five points extra to the girl child. That is why probably every school has more number of girls than boys. It is not about right or wrong, it’s about disturbing the ratio of boys and girls in the school. Three-year-old child is a child, who for god sake doesn’t even know these sexual discriminations. We talk about equality then? Please stop treating female gender as bechari. All she wants is respect.

 Phew!! Lets come out of that debate mode. Back to mission admission.

After getting all your forms, make sure that you know the last date of submission and the timings. Few schools are very strict with the timings and accept forms only till 11:30 am. So be ready early morning for the roller coaster ride to mission admission and don’t get disheartened if a security guard smiles at you as he says sahab time over. Believe us, we faced it twice. LOL.

NURSERY OF ‘QUOTA’

Lets put it in a much simpler way just not to scare you. Every school has their share of reservation for Alumni’s, EWS, Siblings and Minorities. In short your child stands no chance if you are a Non-Delhiite. For that matter even I am not. For the first time in my life I had a regret of coming and settling down in Delhi, because every single point is the destiny of your child.

Reservation is not an issue, but the number of seats does make a difference. Categories of reservation have increased but the number of seats remains the same for the last so many years. It was exasperating to see a school having only as low as eight seats for general category out of 2700 applicants.

 EWS Fraudsters

During the whole process my friends and me saw many people who would come in a big branded car and clothes to buy an EWS form. One incident was shocking when I saw a man picking up the EWS form and walking out to sit in his big luxury car! Well how do they manage to do it is still a big question to me?

Lottery System

I would rather like to call it a fair gamble. Every school as per the law has a fair system of lottery where out of some thousand applicants; only 60 or 100 names are taken out from a big destiny bowl for the general seats and other categories separately. So don’t you dare think that your child would be the lucky one? But who knows the luck?

 The reality is indeed punitive and intimidating for any parent. To give a child the best education is a dream that we all earn for. Every year it’s a new story for new set of parents. Taking admission in nursery has become a competition, which leaves parents baffled and jittery.

Nursery 02Going through this tough task was painful and discouraging. It left me with certain questions like – why best schools of Delhi are meant only for a privileged class? Why each and every school is not the best? Why my child will always be deprived of the best of education? Why my child is engulfed in a bad world of CATEGORIES?

My child will grow in a country where everything from basic education to higher qualification, from jobs to in – jobs promotions is based on the word ‘QUOTA’.

Delhi’s nursery admission process has shattered my hopes of Ache din. All my expectations have vanquished like the promises made by any political party of this country. My three-year-old kid will grow in a country, which is already divided, and surviving on the myth of equality. It’s a cold hard reality, which I have now accepted with a big heart as its a Dilli Dilwalon ki…..

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Richa Sharma

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