Nursery Admissions: 10 questions every parent must ask - hold on!

While trying to understand what options we as parents get when we go out hunting for schools, I came across this article on Rediff that is so impractical that I was encouraged to write this post to give a clear and more practical approach to this million dollar question - "what questions every parent must ask?"

First of all - if you have ever been to a school for admissions - ask YOURSELF this question - are you given the choice or time to ask questions back to school? The 99% of us would answer this question with one word "No", what we are given usually left with is few minutes of time to scan through the list of to-dos or checklists that we need to fulfill in order to get our ward into that school; Or some of the 'branded' schools will handover a nicely done 'sales brochure' and we take that home hoping that this booklet will have answer to all our questions - but seldom thats true; and I am talking about any and all schools across India - you know of any exceptions? Most welcome - feel free to drop a note and I shall cover and highlight them on my portal and blog - they deserve to be appreciated - isn't it?

So the question of what to ask is hardly practical in today's scenario (realistically), so what I as parent myself and having over 8 years of close experience in Nursery Admissions and related issues and challenges, I can tell you that there is no way you get opportunity to ask questions. Specially in metro cities!

Rather, we as parent need to act more intelligently, do research of our own,
1) explore offline feedback from parents of existing students from same school, or
2) check for online reviews at sites like SchoolsWeLike.com or Google Plus profile page of that school for community reviews, or
3) check school sites, brouchers, past performance history etc if you can get handle to it, and
4) Discuss and get involved with other parents on community forums like one here

I don't think a school admin staff will ever give you enough time or opportunity to ask questions like the author has listed in his article.

Here are few quick links to get you started - Top 10 CBSE Schools In India, in Delhi, in Gurgaon, in Bangaluru

Note: I encourage and request all to take out few minutes and review school(s) you have been to, or your kids might be going to; to help community and other parents like us. Thanks!

Delhi Public School, Faridabad - Nursery Admissions 2016-17

Registration open for Nursery admissions 2016-17 in Delhi Public School, Mathura Road, Faridabad....

The registration process consists of two steps :       Step 1: Filling up the form (fields marked * are mandatory)    Step 2: Registration Fees Payment

Documents Required (Scanned copy) :       1: Passport Size Photograph (80% Face Coverage)    2. Scanned Copy of Birth Certificate Click here for more details.

HDFC School,Gurgaon - Nursery Admissions 2016-17

Admission Guidelines for Academic Session 2016-2017 Admissions open for Pre-nursery, Nursery, Kindergarten, Class I, Class II, Class III, Class IV and Class V Age Criteria Entry Age (as on March 31, 2016) PRE-NURSERY 2 yrs 4 months NURSERY 3 yrs 4 months KINDERGARTEN 4 yrs 4 months Click here for more details.

Panel needed to regulate admissions in Gurgaon

There is a growing clamour for the formation of a district-level committee to streamline nursery admissions in the city, in the wake of irregularities in the admission calendar, refund policy and age criterion.

According to parents, nursery admissions in most private unaided schools in the city start in August, which puts a lot of pressure on them to get the child admitted to a school early. Besides, schools follow different policies for the refund of booking amount and many schools don't provide a break-up of the fee.

"The booking amount in most of the schools is as high as Rs 40,000. Also, parents don't get any break-up of the fee structure before March," said Sanjana Khurana, a resident of Sector 57 and a mother of a three-year-old boy.

"While many schools take the cut-off age as two and a half years in nursery, some have set the benchmark at three years," said Gaurav, another parent.

A district-level committee, comprising parents, officials from the district education office and private schools, was formed by the district administration for higher education a couple of months ago.

"Unlike Delhi, there is no regulatory body for nursery admissions. Forming a committee to set up certain guidelines for nursery admission is certainly a good idea," committee member Gauri Sarin said. Deputy commissioner T L Satyaprakash, however, expressed helplessness saying, "The government doesn't have any specific mandate for nursery admissions in private schools."

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/gurgaon/Panel-needed-to-regulate-admissions/articleshow/48398340.cms