School Admissions: Why Complacency is a grave Risk!

Whenever it is time for getting your child admitted in a school, there is no room for complacency. Parents have to be vigilant. They have to keep their eyes and ears open. 3pundits.com already has content that helps parents to decide which school is right for their child. Besides taking this decision, it will help if one is knowledgeable about the schools, the admission process, the probability of getting admission, the preparation required in the process. Why should one be Vigilant? There are several requirements that need to be complied with when it comes to seeking admission in a school. The most important of course is the eligibility in terms of age. It is very important to take note of this aspect as the age requirements for admission to a particular class differs from one school to another. Nisha Ramalingam who had to admit her elder daughter in a new school in Indira Nagar rues this fact today. Nisha was pregnant with her second child when her parents came to stay with her for a few days. Nisha and her husband entrusted the responsibility of finding the school for her daughter in Bangalore to Nisha's father. New to Bangalore, Nisha's father did make a few rounds of the school. "I don't blame my father but I have to only blame myself and my husband" says Nisha. Due to the complacency that they had they missed out on all the important dates. "My father is a conservative type and wherever he heard that the admission process had already started or that there were no seats, he accepted the school office's claims as kosher. Eventually I had to settle down for a new school that accepts lower fees, has no playground and where there are only 10 students in a class", says a dejected Nisha. She has all the more reason to worry because her second born also had to seek admission in the same school. Obviously, the logistics of sending your kids to different schools doesn't always work out. A school is a place where your kids are going to spend 10 years of their life(unless you migrate to another city or another country). If you get admission for your first child in a reputed school, then you can relax when the time is apt for seeking admission for your second born. Schools give preference to siblings when they begin their admission for the nursery school. Distance of the School Sapna Tiwari who relocated to Bangalore after her husband landed a job in Ulsoor and stays in CV Raman Nagar recounts the nightmare she faced when she got admission for her child in a ICSE English medium school in Kundalahalli. Sapna's husband Avinash, a debonair Bihari had a travelling job. Sapna had not even driven a cycle back home in Bihar. Driving a car was out of question. She also was not confident of driving a Honda Activa (though she mustered courage in the later years and drives a Maruti Alto now - 3 years after moving to Bangalore from Ranchi.). The bus stop for the school bus was at a distance as the flat in which she lived was located in a narrow lane. Her son Ashoo had to leave house a good 1 hour before the school time and to compound to the chaos, Sapna found herself pregnant again. Wiser sense prevailed and Sapna Tiwari is thankful to her in-laws who moved lock, stock and barrel from Ranchi to support her. Ashoo has got accustomed to getting up early now but Sapan recounts how helpless she felt when Avinash was travelling and she was new to the place. "On the positive side, the experience has made me stronger. However, I wish I had got admission in a school in the neighbourhood. It would have been a major relief." signs off Sapna Tiwari. Amenities in the Area Another bottleneck for some parents is the lack of stationery stores in some areas. Lavina Sharma who stays in Ejipura laments the fact that she should have checked the school first before booking her flat. Her son studies in a school located bang on Indira Nagar 100 ft road. "Sometimes my son tells me about some item to be purchased for craft so late that I have to depend on some other parent to buy that stuff for me. While I was vigilant about taking admission in a reputed school, I wish I had shown the same vigilance while booking a flat. We gave up a flat near Indira Nagar 80 ft road because the price of the property was exceeding our budget by Rs 2 lacs. It seems silly to me that we overlooked the long term benefits of staying closer to the school", she says apologetically. Procrastination is the Thief of Time Many parents don't realise the power of Internet to research on schools. Added to that is the vanity of permanent residents in Bangalore and the floating IT population, where neighbours find it so difficult to smile at one another or exchange pleasantries. If networking is so important for finding a job, so is it for selecting a good school. So, parents wait until their child is 3 years and then start hunting for a school. Before long you realise that time flies and your kid is ready to go to school. "Finding out a good school is like doing a project" comments Kavita Shastry who went about the process of getting admission for her children in a meticulous manner. "Whenever I took an application form from a school, I  always carried a folder with all the relevant documents, date of birth certificates of my kids, photographs, gum, stapler, pen, pencil etc" laughs Kavita. Since Kavita was always very well organised, she found that the results were extremely rewarding. Planning never goes Waste - Plan the Work, Work the Plan I recall my struggle for getting admission for my children in Bangalore and realise that I have fond memories of the same. I was extremely organised and methodical. At times when I did not get the desired response from the school, I was heartbroken. I was down - but never out. I persevered, used the technique of positive visualization and eventually succeeded in my mission. I can vividly recall the excitement in my voice when I told my spouse on a long distance phone call, "I have done it". Today, there are no regrets and my struggle has been worth all the effort. May be because I am fastidious when it comes to important things in life. I seek perfection, think perfection, visualize perfection and work towards the goal. Until the school admission was completed, I spared no effort to realise my goal.