A very efficient form distribution process at Millennium

Reading articles in the newspapers about how parents queued up in the wee hours to collect admission forms was really disturbing. It is actually not to the credit of the school that parents are lining up. In fact, it is quite the contrary. It means that the school administration cannot hand out forms quickly and satisfy the crowd. Even in a grocery store, the fastest cashier is most efficient. We kept telling our prospective parents that, but who was ready to believe us? Much to our disappointment we kept getting calls the previous day to ask what time the ‘queue’ would start and again, we patiently explained that there was no need to do such a thing, forms would be available all day and for the next 3 days.
This was on 30th November. 1st December was when the admission forms would be distributed. We hoped that people would believe us and waited.. what happened? A large number of disbelieving souls turned up at 4 am because they thought it was unlikely that one school would be any different from the rest. Harish, our transport co-ordinator, who was in the school at 5am urged them to go home and come back at 9.am Few obeyed, others continued. At 7:30am, Arpita spoke to the parents again and asked them to at least grab a bite from the nearby restaurants as we weren’t going to start till 9 (that’s  the time when the forms were going to be distributed from) but it was too close a shave and parents decided that they had waited so long ,they would wait a little longer.
Finally we all gave up and just started the form distribution at 8 o’clock and in the next three hours more than 300 forms were distributed. Activity on the same lines happened later in the day and the next day (2nd December) too. Some of the parents grudgingly agreed that we were indeed fast and efficient as promised and left. How did the form process take such a short while? Well, that’s because at Millennium we try to use technology effectively at every turn!
The admission form actually has to be filled online. Online here is a real online form. It’s not a scanned PDF of our paper form that you print out and fill up and bring to school. There are lots of fields that have to be filled in – and all this directly gets entered into the database. Since the parents enter it directly, the chance of error greatly reduces than having a typist enter it in after deciphering everyone’s writing. Well, once that is done – all the data is very handy for us, in the office. We can sort kids by where they live, when they were born, if they have allergies etc. So overall everything becomes really easy!
What happens next? We call the parents for a meeting (there are about 30 parents in one group) at various time slots in the day on weekends (again, for convenience). They get a tour of the school so they know where the child will be. Then they are given a brief orientation of the school, its philosophy, the ideals etc. After that they get about 30 minutes of Q and A time where we try our best to address their queries. And then, they leave. After that we have a random selection of the students and email them whether they have been shortlisted for admission. All those who were not considered the first time are again put into the pool for the next rounds. And so on and so forth, till all seats are filled.
So, do parents have to keep coming to the school to see if their name has come up in the selection? Not at all. As long as they check their email once a day, they will get the information! We use email, SMS and the website for correspondence. (Speaking of the website, ours is a website that actually gives useful information about the school. The prospective parents can go through it and even email us their queries, which as you all know, actually get answered!)

Why am I writing all this? Most of you, as existing parents, know that is how things always happen at Millennium. But, there was so much coverage about the inefficient admission process of schools and how parents and grandparents suffer – that we wondered why everybody doesn’t do what we do. We have been doing it for so long, all these guys have to do is replicate the same model. It’s the same song for the other school issues – heavy school bags, homework, tiffin problems, not having enough exercise. Come to Millennium, where we have addressed these issues even before they were identified by our society!
In fact, when Mr. Zagade, our Municipal Commissioner visited our school, he was so impressed with the facilities and the processes that we follow, that he asked us to give a talk in the Shikshan Mandal (Pune Municipal Corporation’s educational wing). He wanted them to implement things the way we have!

And all this is because of Dr. Phatak’s vision and the teachers who follow it and the students and parents who wholeheartedly support it. Three cheers for the Millennium Family!