The admission process to schools continues to be a cause of anxiety and stress for most parents. Even now, the admission procedure followed in most of the Private schools is still unclear as there is an absence of a centralized, regulated practice. Recently, the process of interviewing parents along with the kids who were seeking admission had received a lot of criticism from the people and was critically scrutinized.

The concept of having highly interrogative “Interviews” has been neutralized by the legal authorities but there is still an ‘Interactive Admission Session’, as some schools call it, which includes interacting with the parents and the child. The purpose of such ‘Interactions’ is primarily to gauge the child’s abilities/skill-level and get a basic idea about his family, the parenting style and the domestic environment.

In order to help out the parents, we are listing some of the commonly-asked question during school admissions. Usually, these ‘Interactive’ sessions last anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. Hopefully, the following information would help the parents to prepare when they will be interacting with the school authorities.

Parents should be able to explain their method of parenting.

When seeking admission to the pre-primary/primary level, the child should be prepared for questions related to:

• Colour and Shape Identification
• Identification of some common Birds and Animals
• Some questions regarding Painting and Drawing
• Reciting some very commonly-known poems

The parents on the other hand are usually quizzed about their personal details and manner of parenting. Some common questions that parents face include:
• Where do you work? (Details about your profession)
• What according to you is the ideal way of raising your child?
• Have you thought about the future of your child?
Children should be taught to exhibit basic mannerisms like greeting the teachers (interviewers). In order to prepare the child, the parents could hold a few mock Question–Answer session ‘interviews’ at home. Often, children are asked to give a brief introduction about themselves. The child should be able to summarize himself in a few short sentence like:
• My name is ____________.
• My father’s name is _________ and my mother’s name is ____________.
• I have __________ brothers/sisters. (about siblings)
• My house is in ____________. (basic information about address)
Apart from this, the child should be well prepared in basic oral/written skills including capital/non-capitalised alphabets and fundamental counting and numbers.
Sometimes, instead of the child being asked to introduce himself/herself, a few questions may be asked and the child should be able to answer these.
Usually, the following questions are put forth:
• What is your name?
• What is your age?
• Where do you live?
• What is the name of your father/mother?
• What is your brother’s/sister’s name?
• What is your favourite colour/game?
Sometimes there are questions asked about how well is the child cared for and in what manner. The parents should be able to explain how they handle their child if he/she throws a tantrum or doesn’t obey them, i.e. questions regarding disciplining the child. Further, schools would also want to know about any specific health issue the child has or the need of any regular medication or specific dietary details.

Parents are often quizzed about issues regarding child tantrums, stubbornness.
Apart from the above the discussion with the parents might delve around:
• Spending time with the child
• Expectations from the school
• Prioritising child’s happiness with academic achievements
• Issues related to child’s social behaviour — being shy/introverted or hyperactive
• Daily schedule that the child is made to follow at home
• Initiative taken by parents, at home, to make the child’s education more complete

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