Many schools are allowing parents to download forms from their websites.
Parents of tiny tots will be a less harried lot this year, with several schools going online to make it more convenient for them to apply for admission.
Every year, in a battle for seats in elite schools, parents wait in serpentine queues for hours on end just to acquire the admission forms. Since some of the schools in prime localities distribute only a fixed number of forms on a first come, first served basis, many parents start lining up from as early as 2am though the counters open only after 10am.
But this year schools like Campion in Colaba, the Ryan International Group, Cambridge in Kandivli and Ecole Mondiale at Juhu are making their admission forms available online.
According to Paul Machado, principal of Campion School, making the application forms available online help to curb the crowds outside the school.
“We uploaded the form on the website last year and it helped,” Machado said. “There were fewer parents making a beeline for admission forms outside our school compound. At least 70% of the parents who took admission for their children last year downloaded the forms from our website. They filled the form and then came to submit it.”
Machado said the school plans to go entirely online from next year. “We are weighing the pros and cons right now and trying to formulate the process,” he said.
Cambridge School and the Ryan International Group of Schools have tied up with a school networking website through which online admissions will be conducted from November 1.
“We had started it on an experimental basis last year at our school in Chembur and the response was tremendous,” said Francis Joseph, Ryan’s executive head (operations and strategy). “So, this year, we are implementing it in 32 schools across the country and in 10 of our schools in the city and Navi Mumbai. There will be manual work, but we are yet to work that out.”
Francis, too, said the reason for going online was to spare parents the trouble of losing office hours waiting in queues for admission. “They can just sit in their office and apply,” he said. “It will help to reduce anxiety as there are so many schools they need to apply to. It will also make the process transparent for all stake holders.”
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