Several schools have started the nursery admission process for next year and parents have started seeking readmission for their children to preschools.

Parents are expecting the interaction with schools to be online and so, they want to prepare their children to face the screen and learn to interact on this platform.

Some of the schools that have started the admission process for the next session are Modern High School for Girls, South Point School, Birla High School, Sushila Birla Girls’ School and Shri Shikshayatan School.

Some schools are not sure when campuses will reopen; so, the authorities have decided to keep the interaction with parents and children online this year.

“Parents are making enquiries regarding online classes. Some of them who had not shown any interest in April, May and June have come back and rejoined,” Chandrika Ramakrishnan, principal of Mongrace Montessori House New Town, said. “They are asking us how to prepare children for interviews and how to choose the right school.”

At Leap Years preschool in Bhowanipore, admissions to online classes have gone up by 25 per cent in July.

Enquiries have gone up in the Bubble Blue Montessori schools and in BD Memorial, which has five preprimary and primary schools. At Kangaroo Kids Kankurgachhi, there has been an increase in new admissions to online classes in July.

A Leap Years Preschool online class Sourced by Correspondent

“Parents are now making enquiries and seeking admission to online classes unlike in the initial months of the lockdown,” Suman Sood, director of BD Memorial, said.

Sood is mentor of Calcutta, Odisha and Kerala territories of Early Childhood Association, a forum of preschools.

Some of the schools are still to decide if there will be a one-on-one interaction or a group interaction but most said it would be online.

“Because we have a fairly large intake we have started now… the process goes on till December. We have decided on online interaction keeping in mind the pandemic,” Krishna Damani, trustee of South Point, said.

Shri Shikshayatan, Birla High, Sushila Birla will meet parents online.

“We have had online admissions to other classes and so we will do it online at the entry level as well,” Bratati Bhattacharyya, secretary general of Shri Shikshayatan School, said.

Modern High is still to decide on the mode of interaction.

More schools are expected to give out forms in the coming weeks and interactions are expected to begin by August-end or September.

Initially, parents were relaxed… now suddenly they are worried about phonetics and numbers. Competition to get into schools will be no less this year because the number of applicants and schools will remain the same,” Pooja Dugar, director of Leap Years Preschool, said. “The cruel reality is parents see preschools as only a stepping stone to schools.”

Parents are anxious about their children facing interviews online and how they would react to strangers. So, some preschools have decided to conduct “mock interviews” online for both parents and children.

“We conducted mock interviews when we had physical classes. So, we have decided to conduct online mock interviews. Children will interact with teachers not of their branch but of the other branch to familiarise themselves with the process,” Nabonita Bose Mukherjee, principal of Bubble Blue Montessori, which has six schools, said.

Several teachers said parents were apprehensive of their two or three-year-olds facing the camera and online classes would help familiarise them with the new medium.

“Admission is a cause for concern for parents all the time. Our teachers are working with children on online platforms and children are settling in… now is the time to establish the habit of conversation,” Sanjana Vakharia, director, Mongrace Montessori House and principal of the school on Short Street, said.