A Child’s Right To An International School

There is no shortage of bloggers and vloggers and authors giving advice to parents about parenting, including how to choose a good school and how to prepare for the interviews that the schools make parents sit for. In fact, most of these offer differing opinion, backed by completely different research. This leaves parents in a very nervous state, often leaving them wondering if they are doing parenting ‘right’.

A huge amount of resources are spent by parents in trying to do parenting right, especially choosing a right school and sending the kids there by paying the insanely high fees. The society has convinced these parents that their kids will only be successful in life if they get a right education.

Is sending your child to an international school the only way to make sure they achieve their true potential? Well, according to many segments of the society, it is. But what about those parents with a lower paying capacity? Don’t they have the right to the satisfaction of sending their kids to a good school? Why is the society to partial against the local and national schools?

There is some truth in the fact that international schools hone kids for the outer world: they expose kids to a variety of different subjects and cultures and teach them to think and ask questions rather as opposed to the rote learning method that many schools follow. These schools have better teachers, in the sense that they are trained differently, and are often pressurised by the management to hold themselves to a higher standard.

However, these schools are not accessible to all parents and students. And as capitalism took the front seat in the show, it has so happened that there are tons of such schools which have cropped up in the past few years, leading to a declined quality of education.

As a result, while parents are pushing their own boundaries to pay for these expensive schools, the schools don’t meet the required standard. Good schooling is not something money can buy. It comes from years of experience both on the management side and the teaching side. Hence, money simply cannot buy good schooling, no matter how much of it you offer.

The demand-supply model of good schools in India is extremely skewed, and this is usually not in favour of parents who want to ensure good education for their kids. A lot of kids end up going to sub-par schools even though their parents are paying high fees. What does it come down to then? A vast expanse of expenditure without the required results?

A child doesn’t need the AC classrooms and the latest iPad as much as he/she needs a teacher who will bring out the best in him/her. Focussing on providing superficial facilities doesn’t serve the general welfare. Because at the end of the day, good education is all about what makes or mars an individual.