On Friday the 13th, I stood with a flock of parents in front of Harrington Road's Chinmaya Vidyalaya Senior Secondary School. Today was the day where parents checked their interview times displayed on a large bulletin board... if one could call it an "interview." Parents were batched in groups of 22 to appear before the principal in a mere 30-minute increment. Over the course of 7 days, the principal would see an astonishing 1,979 LKG candidates for a meager 160 seats (40 of which are promised to RTE candidates). With barely a minute per parent, I couldn't imagine what metrics the school used to determine whether a family stood in the small "acceptance" pile or the "rejected" heap: would it be the mother's brand of handbag? The crisp material of the father's shirt? Or would it be determined by the 3-year-old child's ability to stand still without making a fuss over the duration of the meeting?
Other than these snap impressions, I assumed the main admissions criteria would come from the application itself. Having filled out 30+ of these forms for the school, I could recite the application questions in my sleep: What is the father's profession? Yearly income? Caste? Community? Mother and father's education credentials? Little was asked about the child, except for vaccination schedule and whether they had a sibling enrolled in the school (alumni received preference).
Looking at the board I noticed a handful of applicants had their own 30-minute time slot. I could only speculate who these candidates could be, though I imagined them to be the ones actively wooed by the school--perhaps they were politicians, wealthy, or otherwise well-connected. With each candidate being expressed by a mere number, the names and personal details of these families remained a mystery.
From these metrics I realized Chinmaya's acceptance rate for LKG general admissions stood at a mere 6%. This figure shows greater exclusivity than just about every Ivy League institution in the US (Harvard is the exception, but barely): For the official figures, Yale's class of 2018 acceptance rate was 6.7%; Harvard's 5.9%; Princeton 7.3%; Columbia, 7.0%.
Before any school congratulates itself for such an association, it's worth dissecting the societal harms created by such exclusivity. For one, LKG admissions is not based on the merit of the child--at least in the case of Ivy Leagues, the single biggest influencers are the student's achievements of GPA and test scores. While one could arguably point out that these factors are also heavily influenced by the parent's socioeconomic status, it simply doesn't come close to Chennai's school system. Here, parents are the single biggest influence on admissions.
Indeed, schools give LKG seats based on the parent's income, education, and profession. With the school unable to meet with each family due to time constraints, some of the criteria may be chalked up to stereotypes, too: "this child comes from a Brahmin household, so her parents will naturally prioritize education," or, "how can a child from the ST community possibly have the resources to perform well academically?"
Some schools do have admissions tests for the child, though I find such benchmarks equally absurd: What could a school possibly ascertain regarding a three-year-old's academic potential? Who among us can remember ourselves at that age, and could make honest associations from those traits to who we are today? One may as well look to the child's astrological sign or birthmarks as a more accurate predictor of academic success. Instead, school administrators delude themselves into believing that a child who can hold a pencil upright is more deserving of a seat than one who struggles because they're used to sidewalk chalk; or that the extroverted child who can regurgitate color names is better suited for school than the one who occupies his time daydreaming quietly.
The result of this rigorous, exclusive system is that the best education goes to those of high birthright rather than character. Chennai's current education system would completely fail to identify and support some of the world's greatest visionaries: those who didn't speak until the age of 4, the shy ones, and the many who grew up in a poor household. All would be overlooked in favor of the child from wealthy, well-connected backgrounds. Indian society is already stacked strongly in the favor of this demographic, but never have I seen the preference so clearly as I have during LKG admissions season to some of Chennai's top schools.
To be clear, the fault is not with the school (not entirely, anyway). The school's admissions procedures are perfect for attracting parents who can give their institution more resources, and therefore more opportunities to boost rankings/test scores. Money means well-equipped computer labs, after school tutoring, higher teacher salaries, state-of-the-art smart classrooms, iPads for students, and ample extracurricular offerings.
And whether we like it or agree with it, wealthier parents are (statistically speaking) more inclined to foster academic excellence than the parents from poorer backgrounds--it has nothing to do with personality and everything to do with access to resources. It is, after all, a luxury to be a stay-at-home parent whose sole job is to look after the needs of the child. It's a luxury to have a well-stocked collection of books at the child's disposal; the linguistic ability to converse with the child in English; the ability to pay for expensive tutors during exam season. Now contrast this child with one from a poorer background: the parents cannot speak English, the mother works two jobs just to feed the family (and let's hope there's no alcohol problems as is so prevalent among this demographic), the child's environment of poor sanitation/hygiene lends itself to ample sick days and inability to focus because of malnutrition problems, and basic internet access is lacking. Parents from both backgrounds could be equally as well-meaning, disciplined, and self-sacrificing, but these traits mean nothing in the eyes of a school seeking the safest candidates. My support for the RTE comes from the fact that this legislation is the only thing offering poorer children any hope of gaining a valuable academic experience comparable to their well-off peers.
In the meantime, for parents who don't get into Chinmaya Vidyalaya's general admissions... your child might have better luck for Yale.
