When it comes to choosing the right school for our children, we all want to be super sure of our decision and not make any mistake. After all, schooling is not just about teaching children academics. A good school fosters an overall development for your child, helps a child find his/her expression, and prepares a child for the challenges ahead by instilling the right principles and values.
At parentune, we not only recognize the importance of the right school for your child but also share your concern. And so, we organized a webinar with our Education Expert, Nitin Pandey, on the 15th April, 2014, on Choosing the Right School for your Child. Parents participated actively in this proparent services webinar and got their doubts cleared around a host of issues—from preparing the child for nursery admissions, what education board to choose, changing schools midway through an academic session etc.
We get you a peek into the webinar.
Q- How can I prepare my 1.8 year-old-child for nursery admissions?
A-Assuming that your daughter has started expressing and speaking in words, you could begin with colours, vegetables, things of her liking in the outdoors, picture books, and some initial familiarization with numbers. Make it as playful and interesting as possible. You could also try some clay modeling, pattern games, lego, pictionary, games with numbers, making the learning incidental to the experience.
Q- My daughter Sakshi will be 2 years this June. My concern is which board should I put her into? I am in Mumbai. I am an IT- software professional.
A- Preschool is board independent, but for schools, you would have options between SSC, CBSE as well as ICSE, all three being in good numbers in your area. Let me give you a quick comparison.
SSC- syllabus focused and driven by the same, limited infrastructure, reasonable fees, low on technology and physical infrastructure; CBSE- largest education board in India, focused on syllabus again, off late has got a new assessment called CCE-trying to change, one has to go from school to school to compare; ICSE- Focused on project based learning and understanding right from the beginning, gives more flexibility to learn concepts, not so much biased to syllabus completion, at the same time-competitive enough.
Also, CBSE has a clear structure to foster result based pedagogy, whereas ICSE has a focus on concept understanding. Having said that they are both trying to focus on practical/hands on application of the learning. That makes them a better option compared to a SSC.
Q- I have read that if planning for competitive exams - CBSE (concentrating more on physics, chemistry and maths) and ICSE (concentrating more on art and learning) are better. Is that correct?
A-Actually, ICSE has a good balance between science subjects as well as arts. And compared to SSC, both CBSE and ICSE have evolved and innovated faster.
Q-I know CBSE and ICSE are more into practical knowledge rather than bookish knowledge. But the amount of assignments, projects they ask the child to do and expect it the very next day - makes me re-think, would I be able to give ample time for my kid to deal with this kind of pressure.
A-You are right about the projects becoming a menace off late....but this again has been the case mainly with a few CBSE schools, not all. ICSE board manages this with a good balance. I understand your worry about being able to give enough time....that i hope, you would balance well as Sakshi grows up.
When choosing a school for her, look for a place which gives her a variety of learning in the surrounding rather than just rote learning from the text book. When learning infrastructure is not supported by extra-curricular activities and sports infrastructure, it is a downer....it is good if the school has a balance between the two.
Also do look at schools independent of the board, but on factors like teacher quality, learning and physical infrastructure, feedback mechanism, and most importantly the word from the fellow parents whose children are studying at these schools.
Q- Someone suggested that till primary I put my child in ICSE or CBSE and then from Secondary section onwards, I continue with SSC. That will lay the foundation, enhance the way the child thinks. What is your opinion?
A-I won't recommend that, changing the board to SSC after CBSE/ICSE in primary is a bad idea. That would lead to complete confusion. These two are completely different ecosystems by themselves. In fact, the other way round if so happens at an early grade- say before grade 5, it is still fine to move the child from SSC to CBSE or ICSE.
Q- I am unaware about the admission process after schooling. When you get into Junior colleges, how do they rank the children from different boards and give admissions?
A-For Mumbai- clearly, the pass-outs from CBSE/ICSE schools are doing better in competitive exams, college entrances. But outside of Mumbai too, CBSE/ICSE would be a better entry point at colleges. Now, even exams like IIT, CAT give a percentile weight-age for the school results (XII- results).
Q- What should a preschool be about?
A-I think preschool is a great place for child's physical and mental development, social skills, fostering independence and just to be looked at it to prepare a toddler for a competitive school is not a good thing....one needs to let the child explore his/her surroundings and learn about the world around him/her and not push the child to compete to get into a school.
