ABU DHABI Parents across Abu Dhabi are losing sleep over finding a school of their choice for their children and all they need is a little help from Lady Luck.
As oversubscribed schools draw out lots to allocate admissions for new primary students, many residents are putting their children’s names on multiple school lists. Just as buying multiple lottery tickets increases the probability of winning a jackpot, parents reckon enrolling at several schools will bolster their chance of getting admission.
But the well intentioned move is causing a huge demand-supply imbalance in schools planning for incoming students.
Ask Bright Riders School principal Rishikesh Padegaonkar, who has been deluged with a staggering 3,000 registrations against 250 seats. “Thousands of registrations in a school do not mean that every parent who has applied wants a seat for their kid. They are just widening their options by registering in three or four different schools,” he said. “It is only in March when parents are asked to pay the fees that we get to know the actual numbers. Last year 30 children dropped out of our list because they found admission elsewhere,” he said.
Rajendran Padmanabhan, business development manager at the newly-opened Global Indian International School (GIIS) said only one out of four applicants eventually ends up taking admission. “We have got 2,000 applications for 250 kindergarten seats. It’s the same story in other schools too,” he said. Another school principal dismissed seat crunch as a myth. “I don’t know of a single child who is sitting at home because he couldn’t get admission last year.
“Every year there is this talk about a seat crunch in Indian schools. But by April, every child of school-going age manages to find a place, although it may not be in the school they hoped for in cases where demand outstrips supply.
ADEC response
A spokesperson of the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) also expressed similar views. “Many parents book their children in several schools causing triple bookings, adding more numbers to the waiting list, but in reality ADEC is not aware of any student not attending school after April this year,” the spokesperson said in an email statement to XPRESS.
The education watchdog said 3,880 school seats were added last year with the opening of three new Indian schools in 2015 and the expansion of two existing ones.
“During the 2016-17 academic school year, ADEC will introduce one more new Indian school with a capacity of 1,672 in addition to expanding another four Indian schools, providing more than 3,550 seats.”
“Some schools that opt for the lot system do so in order to maintain fairness in admission once they have followed all the criteria in place, i.e. siblings, staff children and alumni are priority,” said the ADEC spokesperson.
On their part, parents said they apply to several schools just to be sure of getting at least one place.
“I had applied to four schools and my daughter’s name was not picked in three lottery draws conducted so far. Now we have just one more lottery next week and I am panicking,” said parent Pranav Gupta.
He said his wife is even checking schools in Dubai in case they are unable to secure a kindergarten seat in Abu Dhabi ahead of the new academic year which starts in April.
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