Searching School for Your Child?

Like many good state schools, the private schools also have a lot to offer, including an excellent program for children with individual differences, talented children and for children with learning difficulties. Above all, the convenience factor of watching our child walkout the door and across a supervised school crossing was blessing with a new baby and a toddler at home. But question arises what makes a school first class? How do good schools differ from poor schools? These questions are common but not easy to answer. In a small state like Tripura where the urban parents as well as rural parents are now becoming very much conscious about their children’s education. They are always in search of good schools. But there is no rating system developed by anybody in our society. So the answers of the above questions became very difficult.

Don’t evaluate a school on the basis of Govt. and non Govt. ownership or on the basis of medium. It is a myth in our society that non-Government schools are providing good education specially the English medium schools. The quality of a school depends on many characteristics, not easily measurable, some time all the characteristics are not also important. As parents we require knowledge, perseverance and energy to make informed choices about our children’s education. It is important to understand the education system clearly, as well as the options available before making the final decision. Parents should be better equipped to investigate the rich smorgasbord of schools available. Now, what are the options available in front of us or how we made our choices? Choices for schooling may include the Govt. or private school, distance from house, transportation elite or poor, state board or central board, etc.

These are some of the main factors which govern our decision making about admission of our child in any school. Before checking out individual schools, it’s important to seriously consider your child’s needs as well as your own expectations and values. If you find it difficult to be objective about your our child, you must take with preschool teacher or experienced primary teacher, they may decide what sort of school environment your child would respond to best. In Tripura most of the time the parents are not at all concerned about the needs and personality of the child. Before choosing a school for the child, the parents must think about child’s personality. The need, personality, learning style and any special need that the child is having must be identified by the guardians. Most of the parents refuse to accept the fact that their child is just an average student.

So what kind of school setting is the need of our child, we miscalculate. For that reason we send our children to a school setting which may not be suitable for him. Hence another thing is very important, i.e. family traits. Family value determines which school the child will go. Some parents select the neighborhood schools as the best option for their ward. Sometime choosing religious schools may be the best choice for many parents. We all want to give our children the best opportunities that are available, but we fail to forget that what ever school we choose, or however limited our options are in matters of finance, convenience or locality, the greatest influence or the final outcome will be the home and family. If the cost of an elite education includes severely stressed parents who are striving hard to earn enough money to cover school fees our little one is probably going to feel too stressed. As a result the child will not make use of the optimum resources available in the educational institution.

Start shopping for schools long before your child is due to start school. You can find out about schools and what they offer by contacting individual schools and asking for a prospectus or hand book. You can also get a ‘feel’ for schools by attending open days and taking to teachers and families. Try to find out why they feel the way they do. Be discerning about community opinion. School’s reputation changes slowly, so a popular school may be trading off a reputation gained years ago which may or may not be still justified. Another school may be doing everything right but still be suffering from a previous ‘bad name.’ Here, we are going to discuss about some particulars which we should check before our child’s admission in a particular school.

1. A sound philosophical base:-

As one’s personal philosophy of life dictates his actions, so an institutions philosophy of operation dictates the management of the organization. A Christian school usually defines its philosophy of education as “conforming young people of the image of Jesus Christ.” In Tripura many schools are in a dilemma about their philosophical basis or the motto of their educational institution and are also striving hard to achieve a desired objective. Therefore, I believe, ten facets of school administration that must be addressed in a philosophy statement if a Christian school is to be consistent and biblical in its operation:

1. Purpose of the school.

2. Curriculum.

3. Personnel.

4. Admissions policy.

5. Supervision of instruction.

6. Behavioral standards for students.

7. Academic standards.

8. Gradation

9. Physical facilities.

10. Finances.

A School without a carefully developed, written philosophy statement is like a ship without a rudder.

2. Individual care :-

     Every child is different from the other and need individual attention. Check whether in the school they cater for the individual needs or not. If they cater how? How the schools cater education for talented students in different schools?

3. Discipline and behavior:-

     School rules should be clear to the students and parents. Always ask for a copy of the school’s discipline policy. Examine how those policies discourage inappropriate behavior and reinforce good behavior.

4. Class sites and structure:-

     The main questions in this segment are i. What are the maximum class sites? ii. Does this vary with the subject? iii. On what basis students are grouped within the class?

5. The other students:-

     A companion in the school does affect the development of your child. There is an English proverb who Keeps Company with wolves, will learn to howl. One must examine the community where one’s child will become a part of. Do they come from a narrow or broad range of cultural and socio-economic background?

6. Infrastructural facilities:-

     The infrastructural facilities are a very important factor for providing quality education to your little angel at the elementary level. . Specialized subjects such as music, computing, art, science and technology studies. For computer classes some schools in Tripura collect extra charges from students. Some time schools do not give adequate time to students to access internet. Parents least bother about the school library. But for all round development of your child school library plays a vital role. Play ground is also an important factor. A school must have a playground. The school must have good sporting facilities. For all round developments of students games and sports are essential. As we all know that a sound mind resides in a sound body.

7. School reputation :-

     You can ask friends, neighbours, parents and community leaders about the reputation of the school(s) of interest. After listening the opinion of different persons one can decide whether the positive or negative views would be applicable to your family and children. You may want to find out about special areas of concern such as whether community diversity is reflected in the faculty, and whether students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds are well integrated into the school culture and activities.

8. School safety:-

     You must know how the school will deal with the situation of emergency; whether the school have an emergency plan (you must ask), you must ask the school authority what is their policy in regard to camera mobile, or with mobile phones. Whether there are formal programs in place to combat bulling and ragging

9. Teachers:-

     It is one of the most important aspects that you must consider before choosing the school. In Tripura most of the private schools are paying very low salaries to their teachers and the teachers are compelling their students for private tuitions. This kind of malpractice in school shows that the schools are not serious about good teachers and about their professional development.. These schools should avoided by the parents but unfortunately this is not the case.

10. Curriculum:-

     As parents one should find out how well the school addresses core subjects and skills such as reading, writing, and mathematics by looking at the curriculum, visiting classes, and reading the school’s report card. Now in Tripura, parents are least bothered about curriculum. They think it is a less important thing. C B S E, ICSE and T B S E Board syllabuses are also not scrutinized whether their children are capable of covering that syllabus or not.

11. Costs:-

     In Govt. owned schools, fees are very nominal but the private schools have fees that amount to thousands of rupees annually. Most of the private schools in Tripura charge extra amounts such as musical instrument instruction and hire, camps and excursions, sporting equipments etc. If you are going for elite private schools, then be ready for some more extra costs to maintain the status of your child among other students. Almost all private school students need private coaching. How many private tutors a student is having for his or her different subjects is now-a-days a fashion. Parents become very happy by announcing the numbers of private coaches, their children have. This is also increasing the cost of our children’s education.

12. Uniform:-

     The kind of uniform school have chosen for their students is to be accepted by the all parts of society. Your kid should be comfortable with the uniform. There should not be any kind of social bindings in wearing those uniforms.

     Thus, selecting a good school for the little angels is not an easy task. As parents it is our sole responsibility to select a good school for our children which will help the little angel to grow into a mature and responsible being of the society.

By Mr. Dipankar Biswas

Faculty Member, ICFAI University

Department of Education.