Bhubaneswar Feb. 24: Parents are rushing to grab a seat for their kids as the season for nursery admissions has begun at the most popular schools in the capital. While the sale of admission forms is continuing in some schools, others are already done with it.

However, the parents seem to be confused owing to the absence of a uniform admission procedure at the schools. Schools are supposed to follow the state government’s guidelines of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act with respect to reservation for the disadvantaged sections, ban on screening or entrance test of students and interview of parents, among others.

Quite a few schools in the capital have opted for lottery system, while others have decided to choose it on the ground of “home-to-school distance factor”, the alumnus or the sibling status. Certain schools have decided to go with the admissions on a first-come-first-serve basis. Most schools are admitting kids, who are at least three years old.

While parents struggle to understand the nitty gritties of the admission procedure, reports that schools were manipulating the nursery admissions and the “fair and transparent” selection procedures mentioned in the prospectus is mere eyewash are troubling them even more.

“We have submitted admission forms for my son in three schools. However, we are not sure if he would get admission without any reference or influence. We have been asked to donate extra cash to the school management in order to get our kid admitted into these popular schools. We are simply waiting for the first list of selected candidates to be published. In the worse case scenario, we are prepared to cough up whatever money the schools demand,” said Mrinalinee Behera, a mother.

“In several schools, there is a violation of norms in the ongoing nursery admissions. The government must ensure that these schools stick to the guidelines and more important, there has to be a common procedure of admission in all schools, so that any manipulation can be checked,” she said.

Earlier this month, the state government brought out an advertisement on the guidelines laid down in the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act for admission at the elementary-level. It mentioned that selection of children was to be done on a random basis. In other words, if the number of children applying to the school exceeds the seats available, an open lottery system will be conducted to fill up the seats. It was also ordered that admissions had to be done in a transparent manner without the collection of any form of capitation fee or guardians and children not made to undergo any sort of screening or test.

“We have not received any clear-cut guidelines from the government yet. But, we know about the act and will follow the guidelines accordingly. We are also ready to start admissions for the 25 per cent of the seats for the disadvantaged groups residing within 1km of the school,” said Rashmi R. Senapati, principal of Stewart school, one of the oldest schools in the capital.

“We have no eligibility criteria. We will admit students on first-come-first-serve basis. There will be no reservation except for the 25 per cent for special categories,” said Senapati.

The form fill-up of the popular DAV group of schools, including the DAV Unit-VIII, DAV Chandrasekharpur and the DAV Pokhariput, was conducted between February 13 and February 21.

The schools have devised four different categories for admissions — 25 per cent for special categories, 50 per cent for general candidates, 20 per cent under school management’s discretionary quota and 5 per cent for children of staff members.

The DAV group of schools has decided to go with the random procedure of admission into the entry class which will be held on February 28.

“DAV Schools happen to the one of the best places where we can send out wards, but the chances are so little for general people. Someone whose guardian is not an alumni of the school or has no other sibling studying in the same school can submit one form, while some students have the option of submitting three forms at a time and thus stand a fair chance of getting selected,” said Rohit Jain, a parent.

Many parents have also criticised the option of keeping 20 per cent of the seats under the discretionary quota. “Twenty per cent reservation of seats is huge. At best, the schools should keep five to six seats to itself as it already has a reserved category for its staff. The remaining seats could be transferred to the general category, so that more students get a chance,” said Mahesh Jena, a parent.