Craze for leading Delhi schools leaves many distressed

Sumit Vohra, who runs an online forum to help parents, says that every year some 400,000 applications pour in for around 100,000 nursery seats in Delhi.

A quarter of these are reserved for economically weaker sections, he said.

The leading schools don't come cheap. Their monthly fees, even at the nursery level, can range from Rs.2,000 to a whopping Rs.15,000.

If parents do not get a school of their choice, it can even trigger depression.

Sunil Kumar, a doctor at Ethos Body and Mind Care, said every year he and his colleagues get many such cases.

"Failure to get a seat in a reputed school leads to major psycho-emotional turmoil. It varies from frustration to depression. There is a feeling of rejection, failure or being left out," Kumar told IANS.

He described the prestigious schools as a "status symbol".

The admission process in schools begins in the third week of January. The first list of selected candidates is supposed to come out in the last week of February.

There is a point system followed for admission into the nursery section.

Parents living within one to eight kilometres from the school get 70 points. There are 20 points for those already with a child in that school, and five points if one was an alumnus of the school.