Girls outshine boys in nursery list too

Updated on: Monday, February 13, 2012

With many schools releasing their second list of selected candidates, girls appear to have taken away a big slice of the nursery admission pie in the national capital but parents are disappointed and complain that schools have flouted rules.

The results show that on average over 70 per cent girls have managed to make into the lists in many schools, while the ratio is more than 95 per cent in a reputed school in Dwarka.

The list of about 430 selected children available on the website of St Thomas' School in Dwarka shows that less than 10 boys have been able to make the cut.

"There's hardly any boy in the list. Being a co-ed school it should have been fair with both the genders," said Mandeep Kapoor, who has applied in the school for his son's admission.

"If not, they should have mentioned it earlier, so that we would have not wasted out time in applying in the school," said another parent, not wishing to be named.

"My son has been selected in the school, but I am just reluctant to send my child to the school," she told.

When asked, the school's admission coordinator Neebha said, "We preferred girl children for admission into nursery classes. The few boys whose names appeared in the list were actually decided by the school management."

The other reputed schools in the city that have given undue preference to girls included Birla Vidya Niketan, Pushpa Vihar; Heritage School, Vasant Kunj, G D Goenka Vasant Kunj among others.

Experts attribute this skewed girl-boy ratio to faults in the points system being followed by schools this year.

"The roots of the problem stem from the defects in the points system. Many schools gave points separately under 'girl child' and 'first child', which have given an edge to girls over boys this year," says Sumit Vohra, founder of online parents forum Admissionsnursery.com'.

"Giving incentives to girls is not bad. But it is needed more in rural set ups not in metros like Delhi," he reasoned.

Ashok Ganguly, the former CBSE chairmen who devised the points system for Delhi schools in 2007, pointed out that lack of a uniform points system is the key reason behind this problems.

"Unless a uniform selection procedure is being followed strictly across the board, such problems are likely to surface every admission season," he said.

The lists released by schools in the second round had very few names, adding to parents' disappointment.

On seeing the lists containing only eight to ten names, parents alleged that many schools had not considered children who figured in the wait-listed.

"My son was in the wait-list of K R Mangalam World School in GK II. But in the second list out few days ago, there were hardly any names of children from the wait list," said Neha, a resident of that locality.

"When I demanded a clarification, the school officials said there is no rule which suggests that wait-listed candidates will be selected in the second list," she said.

The situation at the school's Vikash Puri branch is also the same, said another anxious parent Taneet Arora.

"Interestingly, the school has put up a list on its noticeboards which has only 10 names and all begin with alphabet A," explained Arora, who has applied for his daughter's admission in 24 schools, but is yet to find a place for her.

Meanwhile, authorities in GK-II branch reportedly said, "We will come out with a third list only after the admissions are done. But currently we are admitting only those children whose names have appeared in the two lists."

Parents and experts alleged that several schools have manipulated the selection procedure to suit their interests.

"It appears that such schools are manipulating the selection procedure by encouraging backdoor entries with hefty donations," Vohra said.

"There are some schools which have given points under sibling as well as first child. How on earth is it possible that a first child can get points for being a sibling," he said, adding that, the Directorate of Education needs to take such complaints seriously.

Ganguly, however, said all the chaos and controversies being witnessed today arise from "the skewed demand and supply ratio."

"The government needs to strengthen its schools to address this problem," he added.

Girls outshine boys in nursery list too

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