Representative image of a classroom.
Credit: iStock photo
With eight months left for the 2024-25 academic year, several private schools in Bengaluru have started admissions. What’s more, some have even closed admissions for academic sessions that will not start before June 2024.
Not only are parents being greeted with ‘admissions closed’ as a response, they have found that some schools have hiked fees for kindergarten. In one school, the annual fee for kindergarten is Rs 2.5 lakh.
“We enquired for seats in at least six schools in Bengaluru South. Of them, two have already closed admissions,” one parent said.
Another parent frowned that no reputed school in Bengaluru north is accepting admissions to upper kindergarten. “We are forced to admit our son to LKG again as no school has seats for UKG,” the parent said.
Starting early admissions could violate the diktat of the Department of School Education & Literacy that the admission process should not start before the government releases the calendar of events.
Mansoor Ali Khan, general secretary of the CBSE Schools Association, clarified that schools have opened enquiries and not admissions. Khan also defended hike in fees.
“Parents should look at infrastructure and facilities at the school. They can’t compare one standalone school with another. Parents seeking admissions for the first time should do some research to see if a school fits their budget,” Khan, who is a member of the board of management at Delhi Public School, said.
“Even in our school (DPS), we have a policy to increase fees by 7-8% per annum, which is lower than what the government allows,” Khan said, even as he advised member schools not to exploit parents.
In a peculiar restriction, Sri Kumaran Children’s Home has decided not to admit children residing in Rajarajeshwari Nagar, Bannerghatta Road – Gottigere, Kalena Agrahara, Banashankari, Girinagar, Hanumanthanagar, Padmanabhanagar, Isro Layout, Kumaraswamy Layout, Uttarahalli, Basavanagudi, Jayanagar, Shankarpuram, BTM Layout and N R Colony into nursery at its Doddakallasandra campus.
Similarly, admissions for Class 1 at Mallasandra and Doddakallasandra campuses will not be given to those living in Vijayanagar, Attigupe, Koramangala, Silk Board, HSR Layout, Ramakrishna Ashram, Chamarajpet and so on.
“Our buses won’t ply to certain areas,” Deepa Sridhar, director - academics at Sri Kumaran Group of Educational Institutions, said.