My experience of not one but two admissions I have two kids, my daughter is studying her LKG while my son would get into LKG next year. I took a conscious call that I would move to Chennai in 2007 from Bangalore so that I dont get caught out. The odds are stacked too high against the parents in Bangalore because of the limited number of good schools.
My in laws were staying in Padi, which meant I move into the same locality for practical reasons. This meant that I had a chance in applying to the likes of DAV(Mogappair), Chinmaya Vidhyala, Bhavan's & SBIOA though I had decent options in and around Anna Nagar / Mogappair. Certainly I would not have had so many options in Bangalore. Experience 1 - Daughter
We had applied for LKG for our daughter in Bhavan's Chinmaya and finally DAV. We had pretty much decided on a co-ed school as it would allow us to get easier admission for my son on the basis of her sister studying in the same school, as most schools in Chennai give priority to Siblings.
Both Bhavan's & Chinmaya had a sort of test for the kid (similar to the one mentioned by Senthil), my kid did well in both the occasions though we were not confident in the case of Bhavan's because the distance was about 6 kms and the school was giving priority to kids within 5 kms range. When the admissions were put up, it was no wonder we did not get
In the case of Chinmaya we were confident because my kid not only did very well but also spoke for some time with the teachers in addition to a long discussion the principal had with me about my work and the various magazines we publish etc.
When the admissions were put up we were shocked to see her name not in the list, the twist in the tale was her form no. was mentioned but against a different kid. Typically the list is put out at around 5 in the evening so that there is no staff to answer any queries on the admissions. When we tried to raise this to the office staff the next day they were not receptive, we were told the Principal is not expected to come to the school as well.
Despite being told we decided to wait for the principal after a wait till the evening we finally managed to meet the principal, and explained to her the error in the admission list. Our only request to her was to check how did they rank the two kids, if our daughter had not been ranked well we will accept it and look for admissions elsewhere, if she had done well dont penalise her. Despite a high-pressure situation she agreed to our request that she will check it out and if our daughter deserves the seat she would get it. But this would happen the next day morning once the admin staff come back.
So our ordeal continued for the 2nd night not knowing whether we would get admission or not. The next day morning we were back at school. Only one issue now was the parent of the other teacher had not only collected the challans but also paid the fees in the interveaning period. Once the admin staff knew this, they went slow on trying to find out the ranks from the assesements, after waiting till lunch we once again raised the issue with the principal who decided to settle it with immediate effect. The assessment sheets were brought back to the principal who checked them out.
After about half an hour she called us in to explain that indeed there was an error and my daughter would get her admissions, since the other parent had already paid the fees, nothing would be done to them, effectively meaning they had to add my daughter's name seperately to the admissions. With an explanation that they cant afford to add a new name to the list as it would give rise to unnecessary suspicions but a firm promise that we will get a call in the next couple of days to collect the fees challan.
We did get a call 2 days later to come and pay the fees. Hats off to the principal who decided to take the road not taken rather than opting for the easier way out of Shooing us away when we wanted to raise the issue. Experience 2 - Son
This year when time came for admissions the pressure was less on us because we were confident that my son would get admitted in Chinmaya Vidyala because of our daughter studying there, numerous interactions with other parents also re-iterated the same understanding of not much of issues in admission because of siblings. This meant we had applied only to Chinmaya initially, as we were happy with our daughter's progress along with the values being taught in the school, for some one who is from a traditional Tambrahm (Tamil Brahmin) family it meant a lot.
With my son not being as smart as my daughter vocally (he started speaking a few words / sentences only as late as Sept. 08 - the admission process was happening in Dec. 08) we had a small fear for him though the overwhelming feeling was we were not tense. Come the DDay our son did decently well though he missed out on identifying orange colour, he was pretty weak in colours then anyways, we were fairly confident of not having any issues because the panel who interacted with us indicated of Siblings hence the need to be treated differently.
After a week of waiting when the list was put up, our son's name was missing, the sky came crashing down. With thoughts of logistical issues of maintaining two schools, two different vacations, two differet timings etc coming to mind it was becoming a nightmare as usual the list was put up at 5 in the evening on the last day the school closed for vacation.
The next day history repeats itself, we go to the school to meet the principal only to be told she would not be available for the next couple of days. And when we did meet her (though not the same principal as last year) she expressed her views of not possible to accomodate all siblings and the results are on the basis of merit - imagine merit being talked of for 3 year olds. Our only possibility is if there are any drop outs we would get priority as siblings.
But we would know of this only after the vacations which meant 2 weeks of pain and tension. Despite being told this, my wife continued to go to the school every day for the next week or so until the principal went for vacation. After almost 3 weeks of this ordeal continuing finally we were called to come and collect the fees challan confirming his admission, which was possibly rewards for the daily penance which my wife did in front of the principal's room.
In our case Lighting struck the same way twice - this is an ordeal which I wish not to go through again.
Sorry for the long post.. |