You’ve got to do your own growing, no matter how tall your grandfather was.” That’s a bit of folksy Irish wisdom that we could internalise better in India. As the nursery admissions crisis shows, elite advantage stubbornly perpetuates itself, from the very first point of open competition. Nursery or pre-primary admissions are the crucial entry point into a system that will nurture children all the way until college. Lakhs of parents are feverish with worry as they try and work the system, conspire on admissions websites and petition schools. The process is arbitrary in the extreme. In 2007, the Ganguly Committee devised a 100-point system for state-recognised and unaided private schools, so that they could have an open working guide to admissions, and balance their priorities. Children who lived within a certain radius of the school, or girl-children, those with special needs, etc, could be given an edge in the process, and farcical screening interviews scrapped. However, school admissions remain as whimsical and unfair as ever — some even penalised children whose parents were not vegetarian non-smokers. Schools also allot points for children whose parents and siblings attended that school — in effect disadvantaging the rest of the fray. Sometimes, playschools can submit certificates for their little alumni, which could sway a school admissions committee. Since there is no way of actually assessing a toddler’s intrinsic smarts or ability in any meaningful way, these admissions are a clear demonstration in how privilege operates, and exactly how the system is stacked. This nursery scramble is only the most naked manifestation of how “merit” and later worldly success is made up of parental advantage and the right background.
Of course, railing against private schools for being less than perfectly egalitarian does not help, given the paucity of quality public schools. These elite schools are oversubscribed many times over, and it is only natural for them to want to craft their brands in the ways they think best. This admissions theatre merely reveals how, in the absence of an upgrade in our state schooling system, we will still be fighting over scraps.
Of course, railing against private schools for being less than perfectly egalitarian does not help, given the paucity of quality public schools. These elite schools are oversubscribed many times over, and it is only natural for them to want to craft their brands in the ways they think best. This admissions theatre merely reveals how, in the absence of an upgrade in our state schooling system, we will still be fighting over scraps.
Source:Indian Express.
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