Bhubaneswar, Jan. 30: Some parents are taking expert tips to get ready for interaction with teachers, while others are on a shopping spree to appear presentable in front of school authorities.

Admission time in nursery schools is round the corner, and anxious parents have got busy with lining up for forms, along with grooming their children, for the interviews.

'Both I and my wife have studied in Odia medium schools, so we do not speak fluent English. We are trying to prepare our child under the guidance of an expert, so that he sounds confident and is able to answer the questions promptly,' said Ananya Deb, a home-maker.

The rising competition is also adding to the apprehensions of the parents. 'Most of the children are quite well-groomed these days. None, therefore, can be sure that a child will get admission in his or her parents' school of choice. But, getting admission in a good school is quite important, because children spend a lot of hours a day at school,' said Puroshottam Behera, parent of a three-and-a-half-year old boy.

Most of the parents have applied to more than two to three schools to secure a seat in at least one of institutions.

Schools such as Sai International and KIIT International admit children through interactive sessions with the parents and the candidate. 'We talk to the child to check their behaviour with strangers and basic knowledge about alphabets and numbers. An individual session with the parents are also conducted to answer their queries,' said admission co-ordinator of Sai International Pratyasha Dash.

A few other schools such as DPS Kalinga, Stewart School and Ruchika School are also following the similar procedure.

Admission to the DAV public schools at Chandrasekharpur, Unit-VIII, Pokhariput and Kalinga Nagar will be conducted through a lottery system and the forms will be out in the third week of February.

'After receiving the application forms we will scrutinise them to ensure that they fulfil the eligibility criteria, following which we will do a lottery to prepare the final list,' said Debendra Pati, a teacher at DAV Chandrasekharpur.

The admission fees at the schools begin from Rs 10,000 and rises up to Rs 50,000. Adding to the expenses is the hefty amount charged for the prospectus and the forms that ranges between Rs 400 to Rs 5,000.

'With no guidelines available, there is no uniform price for the forms. As we have applied to a number of schools, we had to dole out thousands just to get the form,' said Manaswini Patnaik, a parent.