Parents oppose norm for entry-level admission

Deepankar Sharda

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 17

Already under stress ahead of entry-level classes' admissions, parents faced some anxious moments after they were asked to get their wards' forms attested by a gazetted officer in the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Many local schools have asked the applicants to get their forms countersigned and approved by some class-I authority, which has made parents run from pillar to post. The parents alleged that they had to make various arrangements and visit many places to fulfil the criteria for admissions at certain schools.

December 16 was the last date to apply for entry-level admission at various schools. "At the time when the world is avoiding visiting public places, we have to get through such risk just for getting a signature. A majority of parents don't know any officer and in such cases we have to rely on other resources. Instead of easing out the procedure, we were asked to go through a tangled way in this Covid-19 pandemic," said a parent, seeking anonymity.

"The schools could have adopted a simpler way this time. There have been no instructions by the UT Education Department. At the time when a majority of things are solved online, we have been asked to first get documents signed, scan these and upload these. A simple self-attestation was enough for this process. All supporting documents were also submitted then what was the need to cross check," said another parent.

Meanwhile, schools said they didn't want to take any risk. "This method was particularly adopted for reserved seats and was later extended to the general category. There have been many incidents when we were provided with false information. And in order to safeguard, we have to abide by this rule," said a teacher of a local school, requesting anonymity.

"Not all schools have these criteria. There are certain schools who always adopt this method depending upon their needs," said HS Mamik, president, Independent Schools' Association (ISA).

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