HC advice to parents seeking school admission

Cautioning parents against wanting to gain admission for their children in reputed schools by hook or crook, the Madras High Court Bench here has said such a practice could have a negative impact on the kids and lead to soaring relationship between them.

Justice S. Vaidyanathan also disapproved of the craze among parents to get their children in admitted in select schools and said that exemplary children would “come up in their life like twinkling stars” irrespective of the school in which they study since the role of educational institutions was limited.

The observations were made while dismissing a writ petition filed by an electrician who attempted to get his son admitted in Kendriya Vidyalaya at Tirupparankundram here under the RTE Act quota for the poor by making a wrong claim with respect to the distance between his residence and the school

“It is pertinent to mention here that in the event of his son coming to know of the wrong and tricky method adopted by his father in getting admission in the respondent school, it will somehow affect his relationship with his father in the future,” the judge said.

He went on to state: “Though the intention of the petitioner to impart good education in a reputed institution to his child is appreciable, the method he adopted to reach such a goal is depreciable.

“The contention of the petitioner that he could not pursue his higher studies due to his family indigence and therefore he wanted to get admission for his child in a good school would only create sympathy on the petitioner.

“It also reminds me of a proverb that those who make the worse use of their time are the first to complain of its shortness and that lost wealth may be replaced by industry, lost knowledge by study, lost health by temperance or medicine, but lost time is gone forever.”

The judge also recorded the submission of the school that the petitioner’s son was at first selected provisionally for admission in the school on the basis of his claim that the distance from their residence was only three kilometres, well within the five kilometre radius insisted for admission.

However, when a doubt arose over the distance, a school staff travelled as a pillion rider on the petitioner’s motorcycle and found that the latter’s residence was over six kilometres from the school.