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Parents cry wolf over tough DPS entrance 'exam' paper

A group of Navi Mumbai residents have complained that Nerul's Delhi Public School (DPS) set an extremely difficult paper for five- and six-year-old kids seeking admission to the school's first grade. From complex words like 'corresponding' and 'subtract' to complicated 'missing number' questions and 'number names', the tiny tots were put through two 'exams' of 90 minutes each that would decide the fate of their admission in the much-in-demand school.

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A group of Navi Mumbai residents have complained that Nerul's Delhi Public School (DPS) set an extremely difficult paper for five- and six-year-old kids seeking admission to the school's first grade. From complex words like 'corresponding' and 'subtract' to complicated 'missing number' questions and 'number names', the tiny tots were put through two 'exams' of 90 minutes each that would decide the fate of their admission in the much-in-demand school.

Incidentally, schools are not allowed to put admission-seeking kids through an 'exam'. "As per the CBSE guidelines, schools affiliated to CBSE cannot take entrance for admission in primary section or class 1," said eduction activist Anuj Pandey. He added that the school has not only flouted the CBSE's guidelines but also put unnecessary pressure on small children.

DPS-Nerul conducted the entrance test for the few seats they had available in Class I. The kids were given two 'exams' - one in English language and the other in Mathematics. The exam for Mathematics, which was held on March 25, was so difficult that majority of the children could not attempt all the questions. Parents also said that the standard of questions was much higher than could be attempted by kids who had just passed out kindergarten.

The question paper of Mathematics was set in English language that had long sentences with difficult words. One of the parents, requesting anonymity, said, "The font size of the question paper was also small and it did not seem child-friendly at all. A five-year old child cannot read and understand something written in such small font."

When contacted, Parvez Alam, senior administrative officer of Delhi Public school, Nerul, said, "Parents who have issues (about the exam) can contact the school management. Besides, only those parents are raising questions whose children did not get admission." On being asked about the illegality of such an entrance 'exam', Alam said, "We cannot take entrance for admissions to pre-primary section, but we can for class one and thus we did not flout any guideline."

The teacher of a rival school, who saw the 'exam' papers, said that young kids cannot understand such difficult questions. "In the first question, they should have simply stated: 'Count and Write' instead of using a long sentence," the teacher said on condition of anonymity. The teacher added that the 'missing figure' question was very complicated for children.

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