It is easier to get into Oxford, MIT than Delhi's nursery schools

Hindustan Times - 10/2/09

It is harder for a three-year-old to get into the nursery sections of some leading Delhi schools than for undergraduates to gain admission into one of the 13 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Harvard University Yale , University Oxford University , and Cambridge University .

This year, only one out of every 46 applicants got into Springdales School (Pusa Road and Kirti Nagar). It was easier for candidates appearing for the IIT-Joint Entrance Examination: one of every 45 candidates made the cut last year. Sanskriti School, Chanakyapuri, and Amity International, Saket, ran the IITs close, with 40 and 38 applicants, respectively per seat , in the general category .

And admissions to Ivy League institutions in the US — like Harvard, Yale, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Cornell — and venerable UK universities like Oxford and Cambridge were a walk in the park in comparison: the admission ratio varied between one in 11 for Harvard and Yale and one in five for Oxford and Cornell 

“I could never have imagined cracking nursery for my son would be as tough as cracking the JEE,” said parent Shilpi Kapoor, software engineer and IIT alumnus.

“The problem is parents want brand value for their kids. They want to send their children to certain reputed schools; that’s why many of the established schools receive massive applications,” said Ameeta Wattal, principal of Springdales School, Pusa Road.