This is pandemic time. This time is unique and worth the tale of a life time to be told and re-told to posterity.  But the existence of the pandemic does not give you the comfort of not looking for a school to place your treasure, little angel, your child.  The decision to choose the right school for your child is as important and significant as choosing your partner for a life time.  The partner is important for you.  He/she is destined to be with you for the rest of your life.  The partner might be the cause of your riseand fall.  So is the case with choosing the right school for your child. Once chosen, very difficult to leave aside and separate.  The pull and pressure from within and surrounding  will be too much to withstand.    No wonder today partners make this decision  even before their marriage.  Today parents base their decision on various factors such as deep exploration in search engines, social media sites, website, campus visit, word of mouth, enquiry about the infrastructure, boards, curriculum, timing, teacher student ratio, types of scholastic and co-scholastic activities available in the school, fee structure and sometimes even return on investment. This is a clear indication of the deep interest parents have in the future of their children for whom they wouldn’t trade anything.  Moreover the future happiness and joy of the life of the parents primarily depend upon the quality of education their child would inherit in the early childhood years.  Therefore it’s a serious decision of happiness for life. 

School with care: Care is not just a word.  It is a feeling. It’s an emotion.  It cannot be explained just in words.  It’s the first thing a mother and a father gives to their toddler as soon it’s born.  This sense of care is what holds a child back to home, its parents and loved ones.  It is while sending a child to school that parents would be willing to let go a bit of that personal care for the first time.  But they hope that their child would be cared in the school as much as they are cared at home.  The school should definitely have caring staff which includes principal, teachers and support staff.  A school management that is willing to sacrifice anything for the care and safety of the child is a must.  This is amplified all the more in the COVID times.  The school should have all the necessary health apparatus and above all caring human beings to love them for a joyful learning experience. 

School with Values:  Unfortunately today, people find great pride in separating values from education.  Education in today’s times is identified with having degrees or skills devoid of values which should and must guide their life.  It is frightening and terrifying to experience this deep and unhealthy separation between education and values.  In simple terms people believe  that one can be an acclaimed, successful and performing professional without having the underlying universal values of honesty, integrity, commitment to truth, love for fellow human beings and patriotism.  The world has already seen the evil side of having educated people without the touch of ethics.  While choosing the school for your child it is imperative to find out the commitment of that organization to teach the modern day skills of collaboration, teamwork, ability to cope with failure, decision making, independence, critical thinking and usage of personal freedom etc. 

Environment of joyful learning: One of the greatest disservice to education and to the child was forcing learning upon the  learner believing in the dictum no pain no gain or spare the rod and spoil the child etc. This has caused immense damage not only to the whole system of education but also took away the joy of learning for the learner.  However right was the intention, the implementation of it in a nation as diverse as India especially by teachers with patriarchal mindset has spoilt the good name of the teaching fraternity and schools as a whole, however slight was the aberrations.  The new emphasis upon joyful learning has a long way to go.  Any parent looking for happy children and their future happiness should look for schools that emphasize and do things that reinforce the aspects of Joyful learning. 

Perfect blend of Scholastic & Co-Scholastic environment:  New Education Policy 2020 has removed the hard separation between these two entities.  The earlier idea is that schools are places where academic and cognitive factors are emphasised upon while co-scholastic areas are not its primary domain.  Though there are few schools that perfectly balanced and blended scholastic and co-scholastic arena, these are just islands of excellence in the ocean of formal education set up.  A good school should perfectly balance head and heart, mind and soul, body and spirit.  Have no doubt such a school will benefit your child to live a happy and joyful life.  These are the types of schools that will identify the real God given talents of your child and will help them to reach their true potential and scale up thereafter.  

A school that is technology Driven:   Technology in education is no more an option.  It’s a must and inevitable.  Technology as a tool has truly arrived in the field of education, the relevance of which has been further amplified with the unexpected arrival of COVID 19.  The new buzzwords that happen around like coding, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, tinkering labs etc are just waiting to explode into the sphere of education.  The lid is open and the steam inside will not let you hold anymore.  Fortunate are you if you have a school in your vicinity that has realized the importance of technology driven education.  Our children are digital natives and not digital aliens like most elders and educators are.  The schools of the century should have unshakable commitment not only to the use of technology but enabling children to explore the world of technology.  Lucky are you if your child is part of such a school. 

Alignment with NEP 2020: The new education policy (NEP) 2020 is poised to bring certain enviable and much needed changes in the sphere of education in our country.  The change may not be cosmetic but substantial at least in its intent.  NEP is declaring a war on rote learning and is determined to pursue and push through Competency Based Education (CBE) across our country.  This in turn will instil in students critical thinking, creativity, experiential learning, community participation, problem solving etc.  While you are looking for an admission for your child it is always better to look for a school which is already having these academic infrastructure so that your child can take off from day one. 

A school is like a garden with a variety of flowers.  It is variety that adds beauty to the garden.  Letting the essence of variety and individuality to stay and teaching one to respect and honour the difference is the true spirit of education.  In simple words live and let live. It is the total and complete blooming of the individual staying close to the other and participating joyfully in the self-burgeoning process of the other is the right way of education.  It seriously needs the garden and gardeners who have serious commitment to the above mentioned qualities.  Parents should seriously search for one.  Once found, doubt not. Just walk in,  close your eyes and offer the treasure of your life, your child. And have not doubt, it will be happiness flooding. 

-Published by SFS Narengi