15 hours ago
Is nursery admission as competitive as IIT-JEE?
It's 6 a.m. on an October morning in Delhi. The Sharma household is already in a frenzy. A fat plastic file, stuffed with birth certificate, Aadhaar cards, electricity bills, vaccination slips, and endless photocopies, lies open on the dining table. Ritu flips through the pages nervously for the tenth time while her husband zips it shut. By 6:30, they are rushing out of the door to join a growing queue outside a private school gate. They're not preparing for an engineering exam, not even a college entrance. They are bracing for nursery admissions a battle that now feels as fierce as many urban Indian parents, nursery admission has become the first and most brutal rat race of a child's life. The odds at some elite schools are now lower than IIT-JEE acceptance rates, the costs rival MBA programs, and the emotional toll is NUMBERS: ODDS WORSE THAN IITIIT-JEE (2024–25): 1.8 lakh students appeared for JEE Advanced; ~17,740 IIT seats available, acceptance ~10%.Delhi nursery elite schools: elite international school open ~70–100 general seats. Applications run into thousands. Odds fall below 3–5% , making them tougher than IITs, IIMs, or even Ivy League Vidyalayas: In 2024, KV Balvatika-1 (nursery) seats were filled through a public draw; in some regions, thousands of applicants competed for a few dozen seats.'Getting a seat in a top Delhi school today is like winning a lottery,' says Vivek Mehra, a father who applied to nine schools for his son. 'We weren't celebrating New Year; we were refreshing websites for admission lists.'THE COST: SCHOOLING AS AN INVESTMENT PORTFOLIO
Fees vary wildly, but in Tier-1 metros:Delhi top-tier schools: 2.5–6 lakh per year (20,000–50,000 per month) + admission charges up to 1.5 IB schools: 4–10 lakh per year, with 'infrastructure' and 'development' fees premium schools: 2–4 lakh annually, rising sharply in higher top of this come uniforms, books, activity charges, and transport. Parents report first-year bills touching 7–8 lakh in premium setups. One Gurgaon parent summed it up bluntly: 'My MBA cost less than what I will end up paying for my daughter's nursery to Class 5.'
Parents complain the 'sibling-alumni advantage' makes elite schools near-impossible for first-time entrants. 'Unless you already have one child inside, it feels like a closed club,' says Neha Kapoor, whose son was rejected from all six schools they applied QUALIFICATIONS: THE PHANTOM FILTERWhile Delhi banned 'unfair criteria' like mother's education or parents' job profiles years ago, many forms still ask for details. Parents fear bias even if it's not officially used.'I was asked about my occupation in three schools,' says Rahul Khanna, an IT professional. 'Even if they claim it doesn't matter, as a parent you're constantly second-guessing: Am I educated enough? "Do I earn enough for them to consider me?'THE STRESS: A FAMILY AFFAIRadvertisementNursery admissions are not just about children they become a family-wide project , parents relocating homes to qualify under the distance criterion. Mothers quitting jobs to 'spend more time' on application postponing or timing second children to take warn of a deeper problem. 'We are transferring competitive anxiety from teenagers to toddlers,' says child counsellor Dr. Anjali Verma. 'Parents come to me with panic attacks because their three-year-old didn't make it into a particular school. This is unhealthy, and it trickles down to the child.'THE ALTERNATIVE: PUBLIC SCHOOLS ON THE RISEInterestingly, government-run 'model schools' (Delhi SoSE, PM SHRI, etc.) are seeing record applications—tens of thousands for a few thousand seats. For middle-class families priced out of private options, these are becoming TAKEAWAY FOR PARENTSadvertisementDo the math early: Check point systems and distance before wide: Most parents apply to 8–12 schools; don't pin hopes on realistically: Tuition is just the start—add 30–40% for panic over rejection: Lottery-driven systems are unpredictable.- Ends
