Parents queue all night for child's nursery admission

Dubai: About 1,500 parents reported to work displaying symptoms of insomnia yesterday. They had been standing in a queue all night outside the Kindergarten Starters School (KGS) in Garhoud.

The school office opened at 8am on Wednesday to start the admission process and registration for kindergarten classes on a first-come-first-served basis.

But desperate parents queued up as early as 9pm on Tuesday, almost 12 hours in advance.

"It was a surreal spectacle as hundreds of men and women, some with children in tow, braved the cold wind and spent the entire night just standing. Some of them had anticipated the rush and had come well prepared for the night out.

"They carried blankets and quilts and in some instances even thermos flasks full of tea. I reached the school well past midnight and already there were hundreds of people in the queue ahead of me.

"Luckily, I had a mattress in the car. I rolled it on the tarmac and took a nap. It was not very comforting, but I guess sacrificing a night's sleep is a small price for the future of my child. He got admission and in the end that's what matters," a bleary-eyed father of a four-year-old told Gulf News.

Another parent, marketing executive Ranjit Malik, is no less happy to see his son gain admission to a "prestigious" institute. "It was worth the trouble," said Malik, who reached the school at 2am and spent the night in a sleeping bag with a packet of potato chips for company.

Not everybody was lucky. As many as 400 parents couldn't make it in time to collect the tokens which would have ensured admission and are now on the waiting list.

Shweta Singh, who reached KGS with her daughter at 4am, was too late. "My husband is on tour and I had to come here. It was pitch dark when I left home. But it wasn't early enough. Worse, my child has caught a cold," she said.

Principal Lawrence Harnett attributed the rush to the growing popularity of the school. "There were 300 seats in KG I and KG II and they have all been taken up. We will now request the ministry of education to increase the number of seats so that we can accommodate some of those who have been waitlisted," he said.

Administrative officer Raghunath said the management is contemplating introducing a lottery system next year.

"Hundreds of men and women, some with children in tow, braved the cold wind and spent the entire night just standing."