Back To School

Recently, we celebrated the first birthday of my son. When i asked my wife, what is the gift that she would love to present to him, she told that she wanted to get an admission in “…” – a renowned school in Central Chennai.

Well, i just ignored her statement stating that it was too early to worry about the school admission for a one year old kid. But, when i read some news published in the print media, i too started thinking about the admission process.

The whole damn thing seems to be in a cycle.

1. The media gives lot of hype and hence parents are rushing to those few schools.

2. There is a peer pressure. When the neighbour’s / colleague’s child studies in one of those school, our child should also be studied in the same school or in a much better school.

3. When the demand for an admission to the school increases, it automatically gets the media attention.

4. Read Point # 1 above.

Recently, there was new school started in Anna Nagar. The term fees for LKG was fixed to be Rs. 57,000/- I believe my entire four years for an engineering degree would have been a little shy of a three months fees for this LKG seat. In addition to paying this money, there will be a two level of selection process:

1. Written / Oral test for the child – wait a minute, if you think that once your child gets admission, he will walk out as an IAS officer or a doctor or an engineer, you are mistaken … it is for an admission to LKG and LKG only ! In fact, this famous [?!@*] school will have only up-to standard seven to start with.

2. Interview for the parent to understand their ability to guide the child at home.

Something hit me.

1. If the parent should have the necessary IQ to coach / train / guide the child at home, what are these schools for and what will the class teachers do at class? What is the need for such a huge term fees?

2. I employ a driver to drive my car – before handing over the car key to him, i would run through his background check, his past experiences and take him for a trial run before allowing him to take care of my car. On a contrary, in a school, i end up paying money to the school as well as i have to attend an interview and make them feel confident :( – all these for what? To hand over my child’s future to the school. Shouldn’t i be the person to interview the school HM and the class teacher before admitting my child to their school / class?

Are our children less valued than a materialistic car?

…bright