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Parents demand uniform nursery admission process

Yahoo! India, 17 October 2009

Sat, Oct 17 02:21 PM

New Delhi, Oct 17 (IANS) Tired of making multiple deposits and the unending wait for nursery admissions, parents in the national capital have come together with civil societies to launch a campaign demanding a uniform nursery admission process.

The NGO, School Choice Campaign (SCC) and NurseryAdmissions.com, an online community of parents dedicated to the issue of school admissions, launched a new initiative, Action for School Admission Reforms (ASAR) in Delhi to help parents and collaborate with other stakeholders to bring about policy level changes to establish a fair, equitable and hassle-free school admission process.

'We believe that common admission schedule would not only benefit parents in not having to deposit huge sums of money in multiple schools but would also save the extra time of having to run after the schools for months,' R. Baladevan, national campaign director, School Choice Campaign, said during a discussion here Friday.

The NGOs have also launched a help desk for parents to lodge complaints, even anonymously, against unscrupulous schools. The help desk can be reached at 09953059097 between 9:30 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. (Monday-Friday) and at [email protected]. Parents can also send their complaints or reform ideas through www.schoolchoice.in or www.nurseryadmissions.com.

'As part of our collaborations with the directorate of education (DoE), ASAR runs a helpdesk for parents to lodge complaints, even anonymously, against unscrupulous schools. All complaints will be sent to the DoE for them to act on it,' said Rajan Arora, founder, NurseryAdmissions.Com.

Talking about the problem faced by parents, Arora said: 'There is no information available on the dates of admissions on the DoE website and on the websites of the schools. Parents are unclear on the markings of the group discussions and interviews conducted by the schools and there is no clarity on the refund of money in case of cancellations.'

The NGOs have also prepared a 'parent's charter' through online voting on the basis of the common concerns about the admissions process.

'The charter talks about transparency of results, transparency in admission criteria and timebound refund of money. We want the DoE to accept the charter,' said Baladevan.

(Indo Asian News Service)

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