If I don't live in a joint family, am a young mother with a single male child, have no siblings, eat non-vegetarian food, enjoy my wine, wasn't born in the capital city of the country, don't have a master's degree to my name, can't play an instrument or hold a paint brush or a tennis racquet to save my life and if I smoke (probably from the stress of bringing up my child in chaotic Delhi), my life is as hard as it can be.
But to top it all, my chances of getting my single male child admitted to a nursery school in the capital are abysmally low, thanks to a series of illogical and bizarre criteria introduced by the previous Delhi government, lieutenant governors, bureaucrats and powers that be.
I don't have many complaints against Sheila Dikshit and her running of Delhi over the last many years but the one area where she - and several officials of her government - managed to make a huge hash of things was in the area of nursery admissions. In the last few years, in the capital of Delhi, getting school admission for your progeny has taken on a whole new meaning. Not only does what you do matter, what you eat also seems to matter in the guidelines adopted by various schools across the city.
Anyone who has followed the hula hoop and rigmarole of getting a 3- or 4-year-old into school in the capital will testify that we couldn't have complicated things more if we tried. Time and again, the courts have had to intervene in what should have been a simple matter resolved without any such intervention.
So, I can't praise and support Arvind Kejriwal and Co more when they announced that they were planning to scrap at least 62 assessment criteria that have crept into the system over the years. While almost all the criteria are illogical and stupid, some make it to absurd. First cousin of a student? Status of child? And what about "special quality"? Huh?
Moreover, Kejriwal has also threatened to do away with the management quota - a brilliant idea in my view. A friend of mine runs a large school with several branches in Delhi for the last 30 years and one of the main reasons he has continued with it is this: nothing he says gives him more leeway with the political establishment and bureaucrats than having the power to admit students at his discretion. It has been the single biggest factor that has contributed to the success of the rest of his businesses. I have it from the horse's mouth.
So while I am fully in favour of all of Kejriwal's intentions, I spoke to a few teachers and a couple of school principals to see what they have to say. Based on their inputs and what I have seen around me, I have a few more things to add.
One, ban admission of students into schools beyond a certain geographical radius. I know students (all of 4-5 years) who come daily from Noida to Gurgaon and vice versa. What for? If the parents lack the sense, let the government intervene. Ban this nonsense. Elementary school students don't need to travel a hundred kilometres a day to receive an education. Yes, you have the right to make a choice but within reason. A Gurgaon school principal told me that a number of children fall asleep on the drive back to Delhi and Noida and despite their best efforts, miss the bus stop - resulting in panic for the parents and a logistical nightmare for the school.
Ban interviews of children; interview the parents instead. There's very little to be gained from cross questioning a 3-4 year-old but a school management can assess - and should be trusted to assess - whether a set of parents fits into their school ethos and culture. Eventually, a certain degree of homogeneity in value systems is important for a school to flourish - be it among the students or the parent community. Backgrounds do matter in India and it's silly to pretend otherwise. Several school principals have the experience to assess - within a single meeting - whether the family that is applying to them will fit in with the larger community. In a country with such diversity, this can be a make or break factor.
And three, preference for siblings cannot be done away with - it's a globally and widely accepted criteria. Think of parents with three children in three different schools and you will quickly understand why.
