There are certain factors that a parent should keep in mind when selecting a school for their kid. Each parent wants the best for his/her child, so selection of a school is top most priority in each parent’s mind. Now comes the question of what are the things you need to look into when you’re looking for a school for your child? It certainly would be the curriculum that they are following. Besides the curriculum, there are certain other aspects that you need to look into before enrolling a child in a school. It is imperative to look for the methodology that the school follows, which consists of questions like what is it that they are looking at and are they just catering to the needs of a child through a textbook or are they helping the child think out of the box? Thinking out of the box and applying what they have learnt as concepts or skills is more important than just by-hearting and delivering what has been taught in class. So the methodology of teaching should take centre-stage while choosing a school for your child. Staff attrition is another significant factor – have there been teachers in school for a long time? Have the teachers been changing schools? Why is this point so important? If you have a staff member who has been around for a long time in the school it speaks for the kind of atmosphere the child would get in a classroom, because this also is an intimation about how the management treats the teacher and how much of belongingness, the teacher shows to the school. This would definitely make a child comfortable in the school environment and we would know that the teacher is passionate about his/her work and therefore has continued in the same school.
A child must be given enough individual attention at school. It is tough to be able to attend to every child in the class but it’s imperative to ensure that the teacher knows each student in the class. So, look at whether you have passionate teachers present in the school and don’t shy away from talking to the school faculty and authorities to know more about the teachers. Definitely, safety, security and hygienic atmosphere for your child is a point that keeps coming up very often these days so look for what are the security systems that they have in place in the school. Do not think twice before talking about these aspects with the principal or with others who are available to give you comprehensive details about the safety and security measures followed in the school, which will keep your child safe and secure.
Look for the co-curricular and extra-curricular activities that are offered in the school. You may have the ambience of a school that looks like maybe a five-star hotel or even an IT company but then you need to get into the school to know if there are co-curricular and extra-curricular activities that would propel your child to expose his talents. Do they work towards the overall development of the child or do they just believe in the academic development of the child.
Last but not the least, look at whether the school facilitates learning or do they believe only in concentrating on teaching the child. If they believe only in teaching the child, then the child is not going to flower into a competent and confident individual because he has not got the platform to apply, to ask questions, to analyse, to think and then to deliver.
(Edvantage Point is India’s go-to platform for related products and services. We are into admissions management for schools, career advice and counselling services for students as well as recruitment services).
