Parents toil for kids’ admissions

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Hyderabad: With admission season in full swing in top private schools, parents are frantically trying their luck in multiple institutes. Parents looking to get their kids into top-class schools for the academic year 2013-14 have lamented the tedious process involved and rising expendiature.

“I had spent nearly Rs 10,000 just on application forms of various schools with each institutes charging Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 for per application form,” said a city parent who did not wish to be named, fearing that it may jeopardise his ward’s chances of getting a seat.

“At some well-known schools such as Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and P Obul Reddy School, we were not even allowed to enter the campus as the officials told us they had already received around 6,000 applications for just 60 seats,” said C Prasad, another city parent who started scouting schools as early as September last year.

Prasad went on to elaborate another problem faced by many parents - varying admission schedules followed by city schools. He explained that he had spent at least Rs 50,000 in caution deposits at various schools, as a back-up in case his child did not get into his preferred choice, Bhavan’s which had its dates scheduled later than the rest.

The sky-high pre-admission expenditure has only added to the burden with the fees at popular schools going through the roof. Sources said that in schools like Meridian, Future Kids and Rockwell International, the fees could range from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 3 lakh.

Insiders said that in the initial stages of admission, they charge anything between Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000 for which a receipt for around Rs 5,000 is given under ‘caution deposit’ and the rest is under ‘development fund’ for which no receipt is given.

Parents said that a streamlined or centralised process for the top 10 or 20 schools in the city would make the process much easier. “Our anxiety levels have shot up drastically since October when we started looking for admission,” said Niranjana Prabhu, a parent and resident of Begumpet. “We spent late nights researching schools online and discussing with other parents. My husband also had to take a few days off from work only for this. It is a very taxing process,” she added.

Times of India | Hyderabad | 4th February 2013 | Page 2

Private schools go on advertisement spree in city

Hyderabad: Jack of all trades seems to be a passé, if the latest advertisements of city schools aretobebelieved, a master of all trades is what they can make out of every child.

With a sharp increase in the number of international andcorporateschoolsin the city in the past three years, the fierce competition among these institutes has now overtaken the advertisement space in thecity, andin a bidfor the ‘bestholistic education’ tag, schools are now shelling out big bucks for publicity. Insiders in the advertising field revealed that these schools are now willing to invest as much asRs10lakh to Rs 15 lakh per month for long periods to catch the eye of the parents and kids. Surprisingly, the same schools were reluctant to spend even Rs 1 lakh per month on outdoor hoardings and adstillthree years ago.

“Schools are constantly trying to prove why they are better than the rest. Hence, they are going ahead with advertisement propaganda about facilities they offer and how they encourage the child’s creativity etc,” said Kakoli Chakrabarty, academic executive officer at RequelfordInternational School atRampally, which has a special team of officials to take care of advertisement and publicity. She further said at least 10 new international and corporate schools have come up in the city in the past couple of years. “Faced with such a stiff competition, advertising has become highly essential,” she added. Something on the lines of ‘Mathematician + Musician’ seems to be the mantra that all schools are using to grab as many eyeballs as possible.Itisimpossible to miss the larger-than-life hoardings on every major street, with smiling kids posing with trophies or juggling a testtube and a football.

The taglines revolve around several variants of phrases like ‘Teaching leaders of tomorrow’, ‘Encouraging curiosity’ to ‘Where children learn to be winners’, and ‘The school that makes a difference’ etc. Some advertisements also give a list of facilities offered by these schools like residential, swimming pool, science lab, AC classes, school bus etc. The theme of these ads is only a response to popular demand. Officials of internationalschoolsin thecity reported that one of the most frequently asked questions by parents is ‘Do you have a swimming pool?’ followed by queries for other state-of-the-art amenities. “All ads now strive to show the balance between Einstein and Tendulkar and the various facilities offered for the convenience of busy working parents,” said Fawad Ahmed, senior account executive at a city advertising agency here. The cut throat competition among schoolshas got advertising companies rejoicing. “There has been a 100% increase in the advertisement business from schools in the past three years, especially during February toApril,” said Surendra Nath, chief operating officer of Prakash Arts, an outdoor advertising in thecity.

Times of India | Hyderabad | 1st February, 2013 | Page 4