Its school admission time in Chennai!!!!

As parents we might have to experience many stressful moments.. My blog here is about the first stressful phase we will be facing as parents!!!

The anxiety started from the month of December 2013..  Guess for what??? LKG admissions for our three year old son Srivishnu !!!

For many of the schools  the cut off for birthdate was September 30^th so Srivishnu didn’t have the eligibility even to apply,as he was October  born.

We had to planned to buy application forms in almost all the CBSE schools possible in AnnaNagar and  Mylapore area. (Many might question why only CBSE schools???Considering that both me and my husband studied at Matriculation we are not against this board of education.But with time the Government keeps changing and so is the syllabus with new system like Samacheerkalvi and so on.We wanted to ensure that we give a stable education to our son.So we decided to get application forms from CBSE schools)

So we started the process searching for CBSE during the month of November. Every  four days once we used to call all the schools we are planning to apply, to inquire when they will be issuing the application forms.. The reply most of the time from the schools will be “We have not yet decided call us next week”.

Finally the month of January had come and it was time for application forms to be issued.. Issuing of application forms would mean parents will have to go to school the day before the forms were issued and stay overnight in queues in order to collect the forms which will be be issued only from 9 am the next day. Since just the parents cannot stand for almost 20 hours it would require grandparents, aunties and uncles of the kid also to get involved in this process!!!

Now once the application forms have been issued, filled and submitted to the school, the next phase will be waiting phase!!! What is this waiting phase???

Its nothing but we will have to wait for nearly a month until the shortlisted names of the kids are displayed in the school’s notice board.. If our kid’s name is on the notice board we will feel as though his/her name has been displayed in the notice board for clearing IAS exam but if it is otherwise it will seem like why can’t the world come to an end this moment????

Once the name has been displayed in the notice board, we will have to prepare the kid for the interview.. Even parents, while attending interviews for their career wouldn't have been that anxious but now “n” number of thoughts as to what if the interviewer asks question which our kid is not aware of, what if the kid is not in a mood to respond to the interviewer(considering that they will be only around 3 years of age we can’t predict their mood)will be lingering in their minds.

Its interview time now!!! We will have to wait along with the kid in a waiting room which mostly will be the school’s auditorium wherein all the other parents accompanied by their wards will be waiting.. The common question among parents will be ”Which other schools  have you applied for your kid??”, “what next in case we didn't get admission in this school??” and so on.. The moment your kid's name is called for the interview you will seem the most pious person on earth praying to all God you could think of at that moment.. If your kid answers the questions posed by the interviewer who are none other than the teachers of that school, the feeling of a proud parent could be felt in all your veins.. On the other hand if it doesn't turn out the way it has to, the kid has to face the wrath of parents(I can understand  it is utter stupidity on the part of parents to show their anger on 3 yr old kids but such is the situation of the parents!!!)..

Once the interview is over we need to wait for another  fifteen days or so to know the final list of selected kids. .If your ward is selected you will be receiving an email.. Everytime you check mail(maybe on a daily basis you will check mail twice or may be thrice but during this phase trust me we will tend to refresh our inbox at least once in one hour),your eyes could not wait to see a mail from the school authorities with the subject ”Your kid has got admission to LKG in our school”

After 3.5 months of stressfulness once our ward gets admission in a school we had desired for, the feeling of fulfillment we get, can’t be expressed in words!!! As parents me and my husband has experienced it last year :)

May be two years back when some parent had discussed about this situation I would have definitely mocked at them asking whether they are looking for “LKG admission” for their kid or “college admission”. But after experiencing this situation last year when I see parents of kids in similar situation today make me really ponder where is the education system heading to??Its either recommendation or donation which is needed for admission to kindergarten.. What about those parents who don’t have both??Will they not be able to provide quality education for their kids??Apart from alumni quota, sibling quota, VIP quota the number of seats for the general category is hardly around fifty to sixty seats for which they distribute nearly thousands of applications.. Is it for the mere satisfaction of buying application forms from these reputed schools we stand in queue for hours together???

Its high time since WE do something about this scenario!!!Else parents of tomorrow will be facing even tougher situation..

The biggest question is HOW????