Does anyone in your family have learning difficulties? Is yours a nuclear or a joint family? What was the mother’s age at the time of pregnancy? What is the APGAR score of the child? What is the educational qualification of the child’s grandparents?
If you are planning to seek admission for your child in a prominent school in the Millennium City, chances are that you may be required to answer these and, may be, many more similar queries at the time of the registration.
A group of parents on a social media platform, discussing the admission process in city’s different schools recently, have expressed serious concerns over the nature of queries. The queries being made during registration were largely seen as “intrusive” and showed the alleged “classist” approach of the educational institutes.
One of the parents, initiating the discussion on the platform, pointed out how Kunskapsskolan school during the registration for admission of her child sought to know details about the genetic and family background; pregnancy; identification data, including passport details, and weird “beauty-contest type” questions. She said the questions were “appalling” and reminded her of “eugenics”. She, however, added it was a new trend and no such questions were asked during the admission of her elder child three years ago.
Another parent said she was also taken aback by such questions during the registration of her child, though she did not name the school. She expressed concern that her child was micro preemie and she feared rejection based on her APGAR scores. A few parents objected to this trend, saying that it was “completely unacceptable” and filling such forms amounted to “supporting the practice”.
Another woman said Shiv Nadar school went to the extent of asking the educational qualification of grandparents.
Shiv Nadar, in an official statement, said that it was “to help us leverage their experience in our teaching/learning process”. An official from Kunskapsskolan school said theirs was an “inclusive” school catering to students with diverse neuro needs and details about birth history, APGAR scores and other information helped the professionals at school acknowledge the specific needs of the child for effective support.
The parents, however, felt that seeking such information at the time of registration could be the ground for the rejection of admission.
Tripti Singh, administrator, ‘Gurgaon Parents for Better Education’, a Facebook forum, said many of these queries were not in “good taste” and amounted to violation of privacy.