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CHOICE CRISIS?
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They may not make it to the Top 10 list, but there are hundreds of institutions rendering yeoman service in the field of education. SOMA BASU traces the dilemma of parents...
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IN MANY homes a debate must be raging this month. Particularly, if there is this small bundle of bubbling energy and stamina, all of three years romping in the house and uttering comprehensible words. For, it is time to lay the foundation for the child's future. The anxious parents have to choose a good school, where the child will, perhaps, spend the next 13 vital years of life preparing to take on the competitive world later on.
To put the child in the city's best school is every parent's rightful desire. But what is - or rather, what should be - the benchmark for these aspiring parents?
The school's repute, its building and infrastructure, teacher-student ratio, competent faculty, the school's location, its timing, co-curricular activities, the tuition fee, peer group pressure, the pattern of education system followed, the school's motto and focus, facilities provided, the status symbol... ? - A host of niggling questions compound the confusion.
One wonders, whether it is a relief or a disadvantage that the Temple City does not suffer from the "cloning" syndrome. Unlike in the School Capital of India - Dehradun - , where every old and new entrant is rushing to ape the internationally famous Doon School, for whatever it is worth.
Here, each of the so-thought of top schools tries to make a power statement of its own. Each school claims its share of producing Albert Einsteins or Kalpana Chawlas with fresh concepts in pedagogy and new systems of grading.
The proof of the pudding lies in eating, is the saying. So despite gathering innumerable tips from experienced parents or following a particular school's track record and juggling the negatives and positives of every school, be sure that every child and its parents' experience will be something totally "new, exclusive, different and unexpected" once the schooling years begin.
Ms.Mary Silus, a playschool teacher and a parent herself of an LKG admission-seeking child, is not off track in saying so. "Essentially schools should not function as jails with educational opportunities. They should help and train the child in becoming independent," is her opinion and the VMJ school her choice given the restricted intake of 60 students.
A random check, however, revealed that a fixation for the TVS group-run schools runs deep in the city. However, going by the sheer volume of applications and enrolments, the SBOA (with its 3,500 odd students), the Kendriya Vidyalaya (with 1,200 applications and another month of its sale) and the Mahatma (which battles with 1000-plus applications) do not lag either in the rat race.
Hundreds of applications - especially for LKG admissions - reach other equally good schools run with big ambitions. They all seem to underline that a child is approached and treated as an individual while the school itself endeavours to be in a process of constant improvisation.
Since education makes us what we are, knowledge is basically bought in market. Schools no doubt are a big industry but no one says that profit is a motive. Only determined parents are willing to shell out "a bit on the higher side fee" for the promises articulated by the respective managements.
"TVS schools are the best in Madurai. Apart from the academic orientation, there is an equal stress on extra-curricular activities and the school blends the modern with the traditional well," feels Dr.Banu Shree, a physiologist and the mother of an UKG-going daughter.
Dittoes Dr.Haripriya, a city ophthalmologist: "TVS provides complete education without pushing the child. My friends and colleagues are happy with their children's progress there and recommend strongly." She does not mind the long hours. "The school's environment is healthy for the child than to remain in the house with maids when both parents are working," she says.
Comparing it to Padma Seshadri School in Chennai, her colleague at the Aravind Eye Hospital, Dr.Sharmila echoes: "the spacious campus, neat lay-out, American-style school building, the good faculty, all are points in favour."
On the other hand, ask Principal Mrs.Revathy Krishnamoorthy why a parent should bring a child to Chetana and she shoots: "Under the big banner, we are the most reasonable vis-à-vis fee structure." "We follow a need-based child friendly curriculum with thrust on oral skills which makes a child confident of his abilities," she adds pointing out that lot of mid-streamers who come to Chetana are found wanting in the knowledge of language.
The crowd at Mahatma may be eye-filling as the Principal, Mrs.Premalatha assures "good quality education to all sections of society." In order to accommodate maximum and reject minimum, she has had to add more sections and even go for a new building last year.
In the go for providing good education to kids, says the Jeevana Principal, Mrs.De Monte, it is very important for us to "understand the child and help in his or her all-round development and behaviour. We don't put pressure on book knowledge but allow creative thinking and cast out all kinds of fear from a child's mind," she stresses.
Latest to join the bandwagon of education barons is Mrs.Aruna Visheshvar, who after a 17 years stint as a teacher at Vikaasa is now the principal and owner of the school with a vision. "Our emphasis is on total personality development. A good child should become the best here upon getting individual attention," says this triple Post-graduate in Sanskrit, Chemistry and Business Administration. She in fact gave up a lucrative job in the U.S last year to "take learning beyond the books for children".
Aware that Vikaasa which was at its zenith in the 80s witnessed a comedown during the past decade following the Madura Coats' management decision to allow admission to only the children of its workers and employees, Aruna is confident that a "good blend of students from outside from this year on will turn the tables."
For any parent, it is a difficult choice indeed as most schools endorse a healthy teacher-student ratio (1 : 25 or maximum 30) in order to create young and confident masterminds. They claim using innovative methods of education designed to stimulate all the basic senses and make learning easy and enjoyable.
More often than not, it becomes equally difficult for these schools also to select the new admission seekers. Majority tend to do equally well in LKG interviews given the similar nature of pre-KG training at city's playschools. But the selection procedure amazes you.
If at Lakshmi school it is an hour's systematic assessment looking at how the child climbs, runs, walks, follows and responds, is shy or bold apart from usual identification of colours, shapes, numbers and alphabets, at Vikaasa it takes not even five minutes to judge a child's potential. While the former takes almost a month to give out the results, the latter relieves a parent of all anxiety by giving on-the-spot results. At Mahatma, the child is under no stress at all. Only the parents are questioned about their ward's behavioural pattern and interests. At Chetana, children of non-graduate parents and slow-learners are encouraged.
Little children surely mean big business, agree or not. Popularity of these centres of learning accounts for expansion plans and novelty besides the Board results of course.
But the temper that runs through is "de-stressing the education system while not losing focus of competitiveness." Trumpeting "edutainment", the 700-odd big and small schools in the temple city do witness a surge in candidates during these admission months.
Surprisingly sitting cool in this melee is the Akshara School Principal, Mrs.Kaushalya Srinivasan with a 1:10 ratio for her 250-odd students. "You will not get this ratio anywhere, the teacher becomes an excellent analyser for every student and besides helping in developing skills inculcates forgotten habits like reading, " she reels off with much content. It is the uncompromising "I-Can" motto for the child that sets her programme different from the conventional. "Children should not be forced into an uniform pattern of learning. Each child should be helped to and capable of realizing his/her potential. Those who are able to compete can successfully take part in competitions irrespective of which school they are studying in rather than attending a school that just prepares a child for competitions," is her unyielding opinion.
She is right. There are hundreds of schools, which are perhaps not the "talk of the town" and may not figure in the Top-10 schools in Madurai if one were to draw up such a list. But they too are rendering a yeoman service by educating thousands of students who don't find a place in top ranking schools. They too have bright students in the lot who take on the world with equal conviction, confidence and guts.
It is perhaps blasphemy to judge or rate a school. Ultimately, for every parent the school his or her child studies in is the Best. And even Better if your or my child makes his or her school the Best.
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Metro Plus
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