School admissions are one of the biggest challenges for any parent in India. The rush to get your child into one of the "good" schools starts when the child reaches 3 years when they become eligible to join Pre-nursery. The general wisdom is that it is your best chance of getting the child into one of the school as vacancies in the later classes is extremely limited.
The entire admission process serves as a good revenue generator for these schools, they issue 5000+ forms at around 500 rupees each and rake in a cool 25 lakhs. The selection criteria and procedures are always a secret, as it allows the school to use its discretion to accommodate the "influential" members of society. If you don't have influence, they you need money and lots of it, schools routinely charge 30-40K as building fund or something similar, and all of it is taken in cash and unaccounted. It's a money spinning business raking in crores which is why so many politicians and bureaucrats have set up schools in the last few years. The fact that you get control of large pieces of land at throwaway prices is just the icing on the cake.
One of the schools that is a refreshing change from this racket are the National Public schools. However, I see a few things that are different about them
- They do not take donations. They are upfront about their fees and provide a receipt for the entire amount
- They do charge a higher fees than most schools, but are open about it and seem to pay their teacher's well above the market wage
- Like other schools, their admission process is opaque. Based on evidence, I could see that they overwhelmingly go for children of professionals and give preference to children of alumni and teachers. A few of my friends with significant influence were unable to get a seat there, so it does seem like who you know seems to matter less than in other schools.
I may seem a little biased towards them and with good reason. Between me and my brothers, we spent almost 30 years at NPS Indiranagar. Nisha is set to join the NPS ranks next year, having got an admission to UKG at their newest school in HSR Layout.
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12 comments:
Hi Jaggu!
I'm Kiran,I read all your blogs,quiet interesting,Keep it up,Can you let me know the procedure or can you give me phone numbers of NPS HSR layout,My niece turns 3 this june,we are looking for the best school in HSR after going through your blog,we decided on NPS,Thanks in advance
NPS HSR does not exist right now, the building is still under construction. You can try to call NPS Koramangala, don't remember the number though.
They give out admission forms in sep-oct. You can apply and hope for the best, the shortlisting criteria is anyone's guess.
Hi Jaggu,
Do you have any idea what is the age criteria for NPS LKG admission? My son will be 4yrs in July 2009. So i'm not sure whether i should apply for LKG or PreKG. Do they mention the age cut off in application form?
Thanks
Smitha
Hi Jaggu,
I read you blog.. seems very interesting..... Now a days school admission in schools becomes more professional..... I m also flying in same plane as this year i applied for my kid's admission who is just 2.8 yrs old now and criteria has changed for admission ... for april session 2009 , schools are taking admissions now in sep-oct.... one site is very helpful for me in this whole procedure .... www.schooladmissionindia.com...... it update me each and every second about admission in noida......
Hi,
I am sharing my experience with NPS-HSR and other schools around HSR for academic year 2009-10.
I bought the application by paying Rs.250 from NPS and also from other two schools in HSR Layout.
I got the receipt from the other two schools towards buying the application plus an ack. for having submitted the application.
Whereas in NPS, they did not give the receipt for Rs.250 towards application and they did not acknowledge the receipt of filled application on submission.
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Good posting on school admissions. Thanks for sharing your experience while taking up admissions in one of theschools in HSR layout.
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