Admission season in Multan brings the same scene to our centre every year. A family has a child who is four, five or six, who has a diagnosis of autism, ADHD, a language disorder or a learning difficulty, or who simply has not been easy. They have a shortlist of schools. And they are frightened of the interview, because they have heard the stories: the child who was turned away at the gate, the school that said “we don’t take such children”, the admission that was granted and then quietly withdrawn after the first week.
Some of those stories are true. But many admissions go well, and the ones that go well tend to be prepared in a particular way. This page sets out what Multan private schools actually do in an admission interview, what to bring, how to handle the question of the diagnosis, and what to do if the answer is no. It does not name or rate schools; the right school for your child depends on your child, and what we hear about a school changes every year with its staff.
What a Multan admission interview usually involves
Practice varies a great deal, from a two-minute chat with a receptionist to a full morning of assessment, but most schools in the city do some combination of the following:
- A short test for the child. Usually colours, shapes, letters, numbers, naming pictures, writing their name, sometimes a few words to read. For nursery and pre-nursery, it may be no more than whether the child will sit, hold a pencil and respond to simple questions.
- A conversation with the parents, often with the principal or a senior teacher. Family background, why this school, what the child is like, previous schooling.
- Observation of the child during the above. Does the child separate from the parent? Sit? Make eye contact? Follow an instruction? Cope with a stranger asking questions?
- Paperwork: birth certificate or B-form, previous school leaving certificate if any, photographs, and sometimes a medical form.
What schools are really assessing, under all of this, is two questions: can this child cope with a class of thirty to forty? and will these parents be easy or difficult to deal with? Knowing that helps you prepare for what matters.
What to prepare
The child
Practise the interview situation, not the content. Sitting at a table with a stranger. Being asked “what is your name?” and “what colour is this?” by someone who is not Mama. Being left in a room while a parent waits outside the door. Holding a pencil and writing or copying their name. Many of the children we see fail admission not because they cannot do the task but because the situation overwhelms them. Rehearse the situation at home, then with a relative, then, if you can, in a strange room.
Our school readiness checklist lists the specific skills schools look for, and the school readiness guide explains how to build the ones that are missing. If there is time before admission season, our school readiness programme works on exactly these things.
The paperwork
Bring everything the school asks for and keep a spare set. If you have an assessment report, bring it, but think carefully about when to show it (more on that below). Do not bring a thick folder of therapy notes; a principal will not read it and it signals complexity.
A one-page “about my child”
This is the single most useful thing you can hand a school. One page. What your child is good at. What they find hard. What helps. What to do if they become upset. Who to call. It turns your child from a label into a person the teacher can picture, and it answers the question every teacher is silently asking, which is “what will I actually have to do?” We have a template on about my child.
A support plan, if one is needed
If your child will need a shadow teacher, a seat at the front, a shorter day to begin with, or any other adjustment, decide this before the interview, and be ready to say who will provide it and who will pay. A school that hears “we will arrange and fund a shadow teacher for the first term” is hearing a solution. A school that hears “he needs help” is hearing a problem. Shadow teacher explains what one does and how to arrange it.
Yourself
Decide in advance what you will say about the diagnosis, and agree it between both parents. Interviews go badly when one parent says “he’s fine” and the other says “he has autism” in the same conversation.
Should you tell the school about the diagnosis?
This is the question families ask us most, and there is no single right answer. Here is how to think about it.
Reasons to tell. The school will find out anyway, usually within weeks, and a school that feels deceived is far less likely to be flexible. A teacher who knows what helps can help from day one. If you need adjustments, you cannot ask for them without saying why. And a child with a diagnosis who is admitted with that known has a much stronger position later if problems arise.
Reasons for caution. Some schools in Multan refuse outright at the word “autism”, without looking at the child. A label given in a ten-minute visit, which may not even be right, can close a door that the child could have walked through. And some diagnoses carry more stigma in a given school than others.
What we usually suggest. Describe, do not label, at least at first. “He is a bright boy who finds noisy rooms hard and takes a little longer to settle with new people. He is working with a therapist and doing very well. Here is a page about what helps him.” That is true, it is useful to the teacher, and it lets the school meet the child before the word. If the school asks directly whether there is a diagnosis, answer honestly. If they admit your child, share the report with the class teacher in the first weeks, in a meeting, not by handing it over at the gate.
For ADHD the same applies, with one addition: tell the school early if your child takes medication, because timing and side effects affect the school day.
What schools worry about, and how to answer it
“Will he disturb the class?” This is the real question behind most refusals. The honest answer is sometimes yes, at first. The useful answer is what you will do about it: the shadow teacher, the shorter day, the therapist’s involvement, the agreement to come in immediately if called. Offer a trial term. Many schools will say yes to a trial where they would say no to a commitment.
“Can he manage the work?” If your child is academically able, say so plainly and let the test show it. If they are behind, say where, and say what support is in place. Schools are far more willing to take a child who is behind and supported than a child who is behind and unexplained.
“Will the parents be difficult?” Nobody says this out loud. Show that you will not be: calm, prepared, realistic about your child, clear about what you are offering. A parent who arrives demanding a long list of accommodations before the child has set foot in the school is signalling years of conflict, however justified each demand might be.
“What if it doesn’t work?” Have an answer. “If after a term it is not working for him or for you, we will talk and we will move him without a fuss.” That sentence has opened more doors in our experience than any report.
If the school says no
It will hurt, and it may be unfair. Give yourself a day, then:
- Ask why, politely, in a way that lets them answer honestly. Sometimes the reason is fixable: a specific skill, a specific worry, a missing document. Sometimes it is “we cannot support this child”, which is unpleasant but useful information, because you do not want your child in a school that has already decided it cannot cope.
- Do not beg, and do not threaten. Neither works and both are remembered.
- Ask about a trial or a later re-assessment if the refusal was about readiness rather than willingness. Three months of focused work can change the answer.
- Move on to the next school on the list. There is more than one. Smaller schools, newer schools, and schools with a head who has personal experience of a child with additional needs are often more open than the famous names.
Pakistan does have law requiring schools to educate children with disabilities, and Punjab has its own provisions. In practice, enforcing this against a private school is slow and rarely worth the fight for an individual family. It is worth knowing about, and worth mentioning calmly if a school is openly discriminatory, but build your plan around schools that want your child, not around forcing one that does not. Disability certificate and special education in Punjab sets out what the official routes actually offer.
Mainstream, special, or something in between
Multan has a handful of special schools, a growing number of private schools that will take a child with support, a small number of “inclusive” units attached to mainstream schools, and a great many schools that will say yes to anyone whose fees clear. Quality varies enormously within every one of those categories and changes with staff turnover, so recommendations go out of date quickly.
Rather than asking “which is the best school for autism in Multan”, ask: which school will my child cope in, learn in, and have at least one friend in, with the support we can actually provide? For some children that is a mainstream class with a shadow teacher. For some it is a special school for a year or two, then a move. For a few it is home for a season; see homeschooling an autistic child in Pakistan. The way to decide is in mainstream or special school.
After admission: the first term matters more than the interview
Getting in is the start. Most placements that fail do so in the first term, usually because nobody told the class teacher anything, the child had a bad week, and the school’s patience ran out before anyone intervened. Prevent this:
- Meet the class teacher in the first week, with the one-page summary, and ask how you can help.
- Give the teacher a way to reach you directly, and respond fast when they do.
- Involve your therapist. We routinely speak to teachers, visit schools, and write short, practical notes on what works. Our for schools page explains how.
- If something goes wrong, put the request in writing, calmly and specifically. Letter to school has a template.
- Expect a wobble in the second or third week, when the novelty wears off and the real demands begin. It is normal. It passes with support.
Our experience in Multan is that schools which take a child with additional needs and see it go well become more open the next year, and the year after. Every successful admission makes the next family’s interview a little easier.
If your child has not yet been formally assessed and you are wondering whether to get that done before admission season, what happens in a developmental assessment explains what you would get and how long it takes. And for the practical classroom adjustments to ask for once your child is in, see classroom accommodations for ADHD and classroom support.