Social activist
* Parents are a scared lot these days of admissions and want some organised group to voice their concerns. A parent took me to meet the school principal and I tried to reason, but was dryly told that these are Govt. norms and every argument has a counter argument. Politely we took leave and gave a hard look to the Points System that some of the top ‘brains’ have come up with.
*One look and it’s clear that these norms were created by arm chair specialists devoid of social understanding. The system gives 30 points start to the first child, a sibling however starts with 10 points, a closer understanding actually gives 20 negative points to siblings and a boy starts with 30 negative points as girls have a 10 point weightage. Siblings got a rude shock, no more following into Didi/ Bhaiya footsteps.
*SFS has given the neighbourhood school a whole new meaning, funnily a child walking 12 paces to school gets same 20 points, to the one taking a 12 km bus ride. While GK/ Kailash residents take the brunt of traffic jams with buses ferrying children from far and wide, children from here must travel to far off places. Shouldn’t there be a slot for walking distance ie. Less than 1km?
*Now sample the Babu touch with a Kalmadian twist – 30 points accorded to children of Govt. servants with transferable jobs, barely 5% of whom live in the neighbourhood, is unfair. How does a transfer affect a child’s prospects at the start of schooling, it is understandable in mid session where vacancies are fewer. Perhaps this is done to get as many transfer cases, creating vacancies mid session and earn duplicate admission fees and/or donations. Moreover, 30 points outweigh sibling and neighbourhood factors put together.
*The Points System adopted is discriminatory and loosely framed giving undue weightage to some categories. A fair system is one that has every school giving same weightage for same category and every child should at least start with equal points and then add on weightage. The Education Minister should take a re look at this Arbitrary Point System.