Dear all; I am a mother of 16 month old. I know you might be thinking"why the heck are you here". Well; yesterday a friend of mine ( settled in chennai) was telling about the experience she had to find a school for her son who was just 6 months older than my LO. It seems that they couldn't find seats in many top-listed schools;( even with a district judge's recommendation as the seats are advance booked:spin. So had to book the LKG admission in the school which was their 3rd/4th choice. She was advising me to start looking ASAp. Now; coming to me and J we do not know any district judge or any person of equivalent hold. So I am a little bit tensed on the issue. We plan to return next year end. I wonder will it be too late by then. -Nitha
Nitha, Sorry for your friend. It is very bad. My opinion is, it is not common dear. I know many people went to Chennai for good and got admission too in Schools like PSBB, Jawahar Vidyalaya,DAV. Preferably, you have to be there well in advance, before they start giving application forms and conduct tests.Also it will be helpful for you to do full survey and narrow down to your choice. With love...
Thanks Gowri; It was a relief to know. I wonder why my friend had to suffer so much. She keeping on telling me to book seats this ealry. -Nitha
Hi Nitha, you are in this forum so early.. but always better to start your research on schools this early. Here is my opinion - Not many parents (R2Is) suffer as much as your friend did. But again depends on what schools they were looking at. Not many good schools encourage recommendations, so dont worry about it. You can directly get a seat if you are there ON TIME. On the contrast, there are schools that ask parents to book for seats even when they are pregnant.. I dont want tp comment on those schools. Like gowri said, for genuine schools like PSBB, DAV, Vidya Mandir, etc.. you just have to be available during their admission process. Like in some schools, they want the parents to come in person or parents have to give an authorisation letter to the GPs stating that you want them to collect the application forms. But then the parents + child have to be available for the interview dates. They do not entertain change of interview date nor a parent being unavailable. Another information is that these good schools give admissions for Pre-KG only (to my knowledge). For other classes, like LKG, it is based on available vacancies ONLY. So very less chance there. For admissions to an academic year, say in your case, DD is eligible for Pre-K.G class in year 2011-2012. So you have to be here by Oct last week or November 1st week 2010 because thats the time when these big schools start to give application forms or you can call up school authorites prior and ask them if they will accept authorisation letter for GPs to collect the forms and then be here before the interview dates.. In case of PSBB, appl forms are given in November but selection is done around end of Jan. In some schools(like A School), they have online application form and online submission too. so that reduces the pressure on the NRIs to travel much earlier. Do you know which area in Chennai you are going to settle down? Decide on 3 - 4 schools around that area and prioritise them. You can search the net to see which dates they gave application this year so next year too, it will be around the same time. Or let us know your choice, we can tell you any info we know of those schools..
