Did you hear the school bell ring

The sound of those bells remind me of a man in his late 50’s wearing a khaki uniform standing near the gate and welcoming all the kids with a broad smile on his face and stretched arms. That is how my first day at school began.

My first school was a simple building with 4 floors and its wall soaked in pastel colors, nevertheless the popular one in the locality.

 The first floor of the building was dedicated to all those small wonders who had mustered courage to step out into the world away from their mother’s cuddle. They were the most pampered. The remaining grades occupied the other floors with the senior always in the top floor.

There was no playground within the school premises; an open plot of area 100 by 60 was taken on rent by the school and everyone had to walk for some distance to reach their classrooms. Not one child did feel the brunt of neither heat nor the cold walking that distance, neither did the parents complain. They were more than happy to stand there smile and wave at the kids irrespective of who was their parent, while the latter walked in a line to enter the classrooms.

Step into 2012.

While I was having my tryst with the newspaper one morning, I came across an advertisement in Times of India which had the caption as “KNOW YOUR SCHOOLS”. My curious brain wanted some food and it got more than it had asked for.

Times of India has been organizing an “Expo for schools” to help parents choose the best school for their kids. I was wonderstruck at the very concept of it, but I dint know there was more that would strike me than just this expo.

The expo brings in one place all those schools who want to advertise themselves to the parents and draw the maximum crowd. Showcasing 20 international and some residential schools, the event attracted over 2,000 on Day 1.

 This triggered the explorer within me; I wanted to know more of what is happening in the school sector. Being out of school for more than a decade I thought I was out of sync. I went through the websites of some of the schools mentioned in the expo to see what they offer and what the parents would have to shell out in order to get their kids “admitted” into the school.

 My research showed that some of the top listed schools had average tuition fees of at the least a Lakh in the first year which included the actual fee, the admission fee, not sure what this meant, some deposit. Apart from this there were transport fees, books, uniform and other things that were not included.

However the school websites also bragged about the facilities that they can provide to the wards. Some of the facilities that were common were swimming, basket ball, tennis, football, music, dance, yoga. Some were at the extremes citing horse-riding, LCD TVs inside the school bus and GPS systems installed so that the school can track the buses.

The schools which came second to these top schools also wanted to compete, so there were the same sets of extra curricular activities provided by them, of course please ignore the horse riding, LCD TV and the GPS system! However their fee was comparatively less. I wasn’t sure what would differentiate the two levels.

I wanted to research what the demand was when the supply was at this level. I read some of the blogs, forums where parents want to know the schools in their area and which is the best among them. This is what amazed me the most.

If I can put it this way, the top two requirements of the parents was that the school should not emphasize more on the academics, there should be enough scope for extra-curricular activities and the number of kids in each class should not be more than 25.   

I realized that as the ratio of number of students per class and the tuition fee was inversely proportional. As the number of students per class increased the fee charged by the school decreased.

How is the school selected for the kid then? The parents discuss about the schools in this forum and then based on the reviews about the school they come up with a first list of schools that they would like to visit. Then comes the school visit, where the parents go to the short-listed schools ensure that the facilities that they have gathered information about is right and how useful they are.

Then comes the interview of the teachers and the principal about the roadmap of the school (Talk about influence of IT sector). I remember one of the funny comments I read in a forum posted by a parent. One particular school was not chosen for a lady’s son and the reason posted was that the words used by the teacher was not up to the dictionary standards!! I couldn’t believe what I read.

Once the school-visits are done the list of schools which have to be applied for are shortlisted. Now comes the admission-application part. The range of application cost varies from Rs. 250 to 1000. The story doesn’t end after sending out the application. Next comes the preparation for exams, yes you read it rite parents prepare to face the interview for their kids to get into the school, once the kid is in school the story has just begun.

The other interesting article I read about the schools is about weekly boarding schools. These are normal schools which have started off with boarding facilities per week. As in the kid is picked up from home on Sunday evening, stays at the school the entire week and then is dropped back home by Friday evening. The advantage of these schools as cited by the parents is that they reduce the travelling time and the kids get more time to spend with friends and leaning new skills. Also it’s easier for a working couple who then won’t have to worry about a nanny. On a lighter note I thought the kids would start calling their parents as weekend mom and dad.

Well, I am not against any of this neither am I saying that they are all bad. All that I felt when I read these articles was how complicated we have made life. Some of the facilities provided in these schools may be good and some may be extravagant but the thought of school has change drastically over a decade. I felt the schools are now more into churning out kids who are brilliant in both academics and extra-curricular activities and making huge money. No wonder the Government schools are all locked up and empty.

Gone are the days when our parents never had to think twice about the school I had to join, the choice was very simple: put your child in a school where all the other kids of the community are in. There was no short listing of schools, no school visits, interviewing the teachers, assessing the campus of the school, filling an application form. Life was much simple and happy.