A progress report or a declaration by parents on a child’s basic knowledge and rescheduling interactions with parents — schools are changing their way of interaction with the child and his/her parents for pre-primary admissions.

Don Bosco Park Circus, where parents can apply when the child is four years and six months old have sought “a progress report of the child from the school currently he/she is studying in”.

If home-tutored, parents have to give a declaration on the child’s basic knowledge in mathematics (numerical) and English (language), according to the kindergarten admission notice.

“At the time of application, we have asked parents for a statement from the playschool the child attended. If children are home-tutored parents should give a declaration on the basic knowledge of letters and numbers the child has,” Father Bikash Mondal, the school principal, said.

“We cannot meet parents or children; so, we have made parents responsible for what they say. We receive numerous applications for a limited number of seats; so, this will be the first level of screening, followed by lottery.”

Several schools have been interacting with children and their parents online for pre-primary admissions. Traditional schools which did not reschedule the time allotted to parents in the past are now doing so.

“At times there are Net connectivity problems and parents are unable to attend the interaction; so, we are allotting them another time,” Aruna Gomes, the principal of Loreto House, said. “But we are giving them this option provided they tried to log in or were in the waiting room but could not attend because of Net connectivity problems.

Online interaction has its set of challenges for schools when it comes to assessing the behaviour of parents or children, the head of a school said. It would be an easy affair if the interaction were to happen in school, the head said.

A child is close to the screen during an online interaction and often it seems someone beyond the screen is prompting him/her, a teacher said. “That cannot happen when the interaction is in school.”

“We get an idea about parental relationships when they are in front of us,” Loreto House principal Gomes said.

Calcutta Girls’ High School has decided to call parents to school for an interaction but teachers will interact with children online. “For a fair decision I will have to interact and meet parents in person,” Basanti Biswas, the principal of Calcutta Girls’, said.

“Often, it is the conversation with parents that gives us an insight into their nature. There can be parents with a humble background but they are very sincere about their children… we will be able to gauge that when we meet them.”

Some schools like Sri Sri Academy believe the challenge in an online interaction is the time allotted for the interaction. “Usually, we would finish in a week; now, that has stretched to a month. In school we would meet parents in a group of 10. When the interaction is online we are not comfortable doing that… so, we are meeting parents individually,” Suvina Shunglu, the principal, said.