How To Choose The Right School For Admissions

Schooling is an inevitable and indelible part of everybody's life. Each one has a different perspective towards this. While some parents might feel that a child can learn in any school, some other parents have OCD and have to enrol their wards in the best of schools with the most pricey education.

Among these extremist ideas, a balance is required for choosing a school that has the best curriculum yet charges reasonably. School life forms the foundation of a child's career and future. A good school could do wonders in their lives while a bad school could ruin them for life. Hence, it is important to take the right decision for this milestone.

Like choosing the right course, choosing the right school also depends on a various factors based on your child's needs. Let's look at some of the parameters to evaluate before enrolment.

Knowledge Imparting

This is the prime factor that parents look at for admissions. Basically, they seek quality education by judging the syllabus and curriculum. But this is just a bird's-eye view of the requirement. What parents need to actually focus on is the type of board rather than buying the school's claims of an exclusive syllabus and curriculum.

Some of the boards that Indian schools follow are ICSE (Indian Certificate of Secondary Education), CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education), matriculation, state board and IB (International Board). Look for the standard curriculum and cross-verify if there is something really exceptional about the school's curriculum.

Infrastructure And Facilities

The second top criteria that parents look at is infrastructure. How big is the ground? How tall is the building? Is there air conditioning? Those are some of the common questions. Let's list vital facilities to look for:

Size of the classroom
Number of classrooms
Student-teacher ratio
Water supply
Clean and sufficient restrooms
Library
Playground
Auditorium
Projector
Television
Internet
Buses

Location

The locality of the school matters because your child is going to be there for long hours. Unlike while at home, where you monitor your child all the time, you won't be able to see them at school. Take a look at few factors to determine if the school is at a location of your convenience:

Distance from home
Free from pollution and traffic
Child-friendly neighbourhood
Transport availability

Environment

Environment is beyond the infrastructure or other artificial elements in the campus. A good environment must be good for your child's physical and mental health. Here are the parameters:

Presence of trees and plants
Approachable teachers and management
Usage of eco-friendly products

Safety

Some schools have an extravagant curriculum and demand too much from the students. In such conditions some unhealthy practises could be prevalent and here are they:

Security guard/watchman
Helpers around the campus
CCTV camera
Clean records of the staff working

Working Style

Some schools have an extravagant curriculum and demand too much from the students. In such condition some unhealthy practices could be prevalent and here are they:

Corporal punishment
Excessive homework
Prolonged school hours

You must look for:

Constructive feedback system
Organised homework instructions
Standard school timings

Extracurricular Activities

More is always good but make sure that the more is not too much for the kids to handle. Some of the extra-curriculars to look for are:

Project work
Arts classes in school hours
Sports periods
Regular school and inter-school competitions
Seminars

Academics

Apart from the system of education, the society has an obsession for academically strong results. To achieve that, go through the following factors:

Quality of teaching
Provision of apt study material
Methods used to obtain results (long hours of special classes or student abuse records could be a clear red signal)

Discipline

Even though this must be on the top of the checklist, parents tend to look for this in the last only. Anything can be earned when lost but if behaviour of the children goes for a toss, then it is very hard to correct them later on. So it is important to strike the iron while it is hot. Parameters to check:

Value education classes
Importance given to uniform dressing and punctuality
Attitude of students (You can judge to an extent with the way students around talk to one another)
Easy and healthy relationships amongst students of the opposite gender

What Not To Go By

These are some of the glaring mistakes that parents make while selecting the school. You might want to flaunt all the luxuries the school offers, but beware of the side effects they may have on your child's future. These are the parameters to eliminate from your selection criteria: