Don’t make the mistake of assuming that because major international companies have their offices in Bangalore, because vast numbers of college-educated specialists live in Bangalore, then its schools must also be great.
With a handful of exceptions, Bangalore schools range in quality from average to abysmal.
And the general quality of school teachers is among the worst I’ve seen or heard of. Not surprising, actually. Anyone who can walk upright and speak English can get a very well-paying job answering a telephone. With tea-boys at BPOs making as much as teachers and a high cost of living that does not make idealism economically viable, teaching is not the career choice of most smart people.
So the boom in Bangalore has ironically created a situation where there are so many better paying career options that there is actually a shortage of talented teachers at a time when the number of students has gone up due to massive migration and repatriation to the city.
There are 3 main types of schools available in Bangalore: the traditional schools, the international schools, and the new schools.
The Traditional Schools: These are the branded schools whose name everyone recognizes.
Indians moving back to India think: “I went to a no-frills traditional school, and they drilled me and helped me get those exam results I needed to study medicine/engineering/management. I managed to go to the U.S. and kick butt in college. Now I want my U.S.-citizen kids to go through the drill I couldn’t escape because, hey, it wasn’t too bad for me after all.
So what if there are 50-60 kids in a classroom? It’ll teach them to toughen up and appreciate the odds I had to overcome in life. They’ve become pampered softies abroad, thinking they can get hugs from teachers and ask them all the questions they want. Why, it’s good, old-fashioned cramming, mindless bowing to authority and leaping from exam to exam that got me where I am, and no better place to deliver that than a good, old-fashioned reputable school with a good track record.”
It is allegedly impossible to get admission to these schools because they have gargantuan waiting lists that parents signed with their blood before they even conceived their kids. However, offer a generous “donation”, drop a few names, and seats will miraculously become available.
The International Schools: For parents who don’t want to subject themselves and their children to the humiliation of seeking admission to a traditional school, and who have deep pockets, the so-called international schools are a lifesaver.
An international school should offer an international student body, an international teaching staff, an international curriculum and international-quality facilities. The existing international schools sometimes meet maybe one or two, and most often, none of these criteria. They do charge their parents astronomical dollar-equivalent fees comparable to elite private schools overseas, while paying their mostly Indian teachers slightly more than the local schools.
In terms of value, these schools are the ultimate rip-off. My advice: Save the money for college.
Gullible streams of NRIs and expatriates looking for continuity, and a more easygoing and familiar school environment for their children fall for the rolling campuses and soft-sell from these schools. What these parents don’t know, but find out gradually, is that the teachers who staff these schools have had most of their education and training in the traditional Indian system. A few weeks of token “training” or a week abroad does not change a mindset trained to impart knowledge through rote learning, exams and an authoritarian teaching style that is suited to a classroom where children are expected to be seen and not heard. These teachers are affronted when kids ask them questions ("How can I finish the syllabus if kids keep putting up their hands and interrupting me?").
The New Schools: These offer elements of both the international and the traditional schools. In general, they are less finicky about admissions than the traditional schools and have smaller class sizes. They tend to be located on the fringes of the city. Their fees tend to be higher than those of traditional schools, but much lower than those of international schools. They offer a range of sports and extra-curricular activities. They usually offer the traditional ICSE/CBSE curriculum, but without the numbing rigor. Some of these schools offer the Cambridge IGCSE as an option in high school.
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Friday, October 9, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
CBSE, ICSE: Pick Your Poison
Copyrighted. Reprints only with full attribution and the author's permission.
What is CBSE? What is ICSE? Is one better than the other?
For parents, it is akin to being asked to choose which poison to administer to their child. Both these exam boards cram a huge amount of knowledge into our children while chipping away at their individuality so that by the time they finish school they are are no square pegs left to squeeze into round holes.
CBSE schools are affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education, based in Delhi, which is why some schools will say they are attached to the “Delhi Board,” as opposed to the regional “state board.”
The CBSE board conducts two examinations, one at the end of Class 10 (which it is now considering making optional), and another at the end of Class 12 (the results of which help determine which college a student might be able to enroll in).
Government and military employees face frequent transfers around the country. The CBSE board has a uniform curriculum tailor-made for this constituency.
The CBSE curriculum is largely rote-based, and therefore ideal for government and military schools as it is fairly easy to ensure the same textbooks and parroting teachers are available anywhere in the country. The exams test memory rather than intelligence.
The CBSE board is perceived as strong in mathematics and the sciences, and easy in English and social sciences. The same board also conducts entrance examinations for engineering and pre-medical courses, and the curriculum and questions of these coincide with its school syllabi.
This accounts for the widely held assumption that CBSE students perform better in these tests because they are already familiar with the subject matter tested.
Many private schools also offer the CBSE curriculum: It is an easy product to deliver even with barely adequate teachers. Customers don’t have to be sold on it as they are predisposed to think it gives their children an edge in the college market.
The other rival education brand, the ICSE, also has a cookie-cutter approach to education. But it has a far massive syllabus and essay type questions, which are a truer test of intelligence and expressiveness, and therefore harder to get perfect scores on.
A large portion of CBSE exam questions are multiple choice, making it easy for candidates to get perfect scores for correct answers even if they have poor language skills -- and therefore high overall scores. The board has recently modernized the curriculum, requiring more essays and reflective answers. It also plans to switch to a system of letter grades from 2010.
Parents opting for the CBSE system say they do so their children can get higher scores, giving them an edge in college applications (Most Indian colleges specify the minimum cutoff percentage of marks they want in applicants. If you got less, don’t even bother to apply.) However, many of the premier colleges in India administer entrance exams of their own precisely because they do not want just rote learners to crash their rolls and they want to pick their own candidates. So, scoring high in school board exams are no longer a shoo-in for admission to India’s top colleges.
The CBSE system is the default choice for many who want their children to study engineering or medicine because popular myth has it that this board’s candidates are more likely to succeed in entrance exams. This is only a perception. The reality is that the majority of candidates who succeed in entrance exams for institutes such as IIT prepare themselves with additional private tutorials and coaching classes that teach test taking techniques that enable them to score high. In fact, actual surveys of students who made it to the Indian Institute of Technology, the holy grail of engineering studies in India, have revealed that a greater number of them hailed from ICSE rather than CBSE schools.
The national education minister Kapil Sibal recently shook the massive ants’ nest that the country’s education system is by suggesting that his government is likely to abolish the 10th grade examination, starting with the CBSE’s own exam, from 2011.
Under the new system, students will be assessed by their own schools, and over a longer period so that a single exam does not have the power make or break their lives. Letter grades will be awarded rather than marks so students have benchmarks for their performances, without having their worth measured in percentages and decimals derived from one exam. These are all sensible changes.
These are all necessary and welcome changes. Indian students generally perform well on tests that require cramming and offering predictable answers. They are unable to think out of the box because our education system does not nurture or reward this skill.
The 10th grade exam is often a dress rehearsal for the 12th grade exam, which supposedly prepares you for college exams, and ad nauseam. If an exam exists solely to prepare children for another bigger exam, then it has no intrinsic value of its own. Our 9th and 10th graders devote two years to cram for a week of sit-down exams. Imagine, if that time was spent in experiencing the joy of learning for the sake of learning before they are spat out of the system and into the cynical world where skills are worthwhile only if they are marketable or capable of generating money.
What is CBSE? What is ICSE? Is one better than the other?
For parents, it is akin to being asked to choose which poison to administer to their child. Both these exam boards cram a huge amount of knowledge into our children while chipping away at their individuality so that by the time they finish school they are are no square pegs left to squeeze into round holes.
CBSE schools are affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education, based in Delhi, which is why some schools will say they are attached to the “Delhi Board,” as opposed to the regional “state board.”
The CBSE board conducts two examinations, one at the end of Class 10 (which it is now considering making optional), and another at the end of Class 12 (the results of which help determine which college a student might be able to enroll in).
Government and military employees face frequent transfers around the country. The CBSE board has a uniform curriculum tailor-made for this constituency.
The CBSE curriculum is largely rote-based, and therefore ideal for government and military schools as it is fairly easy to ensure the same textbooks and parroting teachers are available anywhere in the country. The exams test memory rather than intelligence.
The CBSE board is perceived as strong in mathematics and the sciences, and easy in English and social sciences. The same board also conducts entrance examinations for engineering and pre-medical courses, and the curriculum and questions of these coincide with its school syllabi.
This accounts for the widely held assumption that CBSE students perform better in these tests because they are already familiar with the subject matter tested.
Many private schools also offer the CBSE curriculum: It is an easy product to deliver even with barely adequate teachers. Customers don’t have to be sold on it as they are predisposed to think it gives their children an edge in the college market.
The other rival education brand, the ICSE, also has a cookie-cutter approach to education. But it has a far massive syllabus and essay type questions, which are a truer test of intelligence and expressiveness, and therefore harder to get perfect scores on.
A large portion of CBSE exam questions are multiple choice, making it easy for candidates to get perfect scores for correct answers even if they have poor language skills -- and therefore high overall scores. The board has recently modernized the curriculum, requiring more essays and reflective answers. It also plans to switch to a system of letter grades from 2010.
Parents opting for the CBSE system say they do so their children can get higher scores, giving them an edge in college applications (Most Indian colleges specify the minimum cutoff percentage of marks they want in applicants. If you got less, don’t even bother to apply.) However, many of the premier colleges in India administer entrance exams of their own precisely because they do not want just rote learners to crash their rolls and they want to pick their own candidates. So, scoring high in school board exams are no longer a shoo-in for admission to India’s top colleges.
The CBSE system is the default choice for many who want their children to study engineering or medicine because popular myth has it that this board’s candidates are more likely to succeed in entrance exams. This is only a perception. The reality is that the majority of candidates who succeed in entrance exams for institutes such as IIT prepare themselves with additional private tutorials and coaching classes that teach test taking techniques that enable them to score high. In fact, actual surveys of students who made it to the Indian Institute of Technology, the holy grail of engineering studies in India, have revealed that a greater number of them hailed from ICSE rather than CBSE schools.
The national education minister Kapil Sibal recently shook the massive ants’ nest that the country’s education system is by suggesting that his government is likely to abolish the 10th grade examination, starting with the CBSE’s own exam, from 2011.
Under the new system, students will be assessed by their own schools, and over a longer period so that a single exam does not have the power make or break their lives. Letter grades will be awarded rather than marks so students have benchmarks for their performances, without having their worth measured in percentages and decimals derived from one exam. These are all sensible changes.
These are all necessary and welcome changes. Indian students generally perform well on tests that require cramming and offering predictable answers. They are unable to think out of the box because our education system does not nurture or reward this skill.
The 10th grade exam is often a dress rehearsal for the 12th grade exam, which supposedly prepares you for college exams, and ad nauseam. If an exam exists solely to prepare children for another bigger exam, then it has no intrinsic value of its own. Our 9th and 10th graders devote two years to cram for a week of sit-down exams. Imagine, if that time was spent in experiencing the joy of learning for the sake of learning before they are spat out of the system and into the cynical world where skills are worthwhile only if they are marketable or capable of generating money.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
The Parents' Guide to India's Education System
Copyrighted. Reprints only with attribution and the author’s permission
This blog offers the Only guide to education in India that is comprehensive, honest and useful. Most so-called guides are larded with PR bullshit. Take it from a parent and a former newspaper reporter who has scoured every option and is happy to share her findings with thousands of others who are likely to walk in the same shoes.
Families moving to India find themselves staring at an alphabet soup of educational systems: CBSE, ICSE, SSC, SSLC, NCERT, IGCSE, ISC .... The nightmare doesn’t end, and parents have to make the right choice in a snap.
Time is short. The education system is completely different from what your children are used to. The school year is different. The Indian school calendar runs from June to March so you agonize about whether it’s better to let your children finish their school year abroad so they experience closure before you all move, or better for them to cut short their school year, forgo their summer holidays and plunge into a fresh start in India. School admission can be a humiliating ordeal for parents and children. Schools typically have long waiting lists and grueling admission tests that can batter a child’s self-confidence. Your children are likely to be saddled with heavier school bags, loaded with homework, parrot their textbooks and constantly prepare for tests.
You stare at all these unappetizing options and have to take the perfect decision quickly ... because your child’s future depends on the oracle of a school principal and your ability to find the right school and curriculum.
Unscrambling the acronyms is easy. The challenge lies in finding the right school that can give your child an enriched and balanced learning experience that you want for them and would make your relocation worthwhile.
Those relocating for a brief period want to leapfrog into a compatible educational ecosystem. Those moving to India for good want to make that perfect, unerring decision that could make or break their family's adjustment to India.
Parents want to choose a school and an education system that together are most likely to make their kids happy, successful and well-prepared for admission to the most competitive colleges in India and abroad.
Read my succeeding posts for answers to the most asked questions about the Indian school system.
The next installment will answer:
What is CBSE?
What is ICSE?
Which is better: CBSE or ICSE?
This blog offers the Only guide to education in India that is comprehensive, honest and useful. Most so-called guides are larded with PR bullshit. Take it from a parent and a former newspaper reporter who has scoured every option and is happy to share her findings with thousands of others who are likely to walk in the same shoes.
Families moving to India find themselves staring at an alphabet soup of educational systems: CBSE, ICSE, SSC, SSLC, NCERT, IGCSE, ISC .... The nightmare doesn’t end, and parents have to make the right choice in a snap.
Time is short. The education system is completely different from what your children are used to. The school year is different. The Indian school calendar runs from June to March so you agonize about whether it’s better to let your children finish their school year abroad so they experience closure before you all move, or better for them to cut short their school year, forgo their summer holidays and plunge into a fresh start in India. School admission can be a humiliating ordeal for parents and children. Schools typically have long waiting lists and grueling admission tests that can batter a child’s self-confidence. Your children are likely to be saddled with heavier school bags, loaded with homework, parrot their textbooks and constantly prepare for tests.
You stare at all these unappetizing options and have to take the perfect decision quickly ... because your child’s future depends on the oracle of a school principal and your ability to find the right school and curriculum.
Unscrambling the acronyms is easy. The challenge lies in finding the right school that can give your child an enriched and balanced learning experience that you want for them and would make your relocation worthwhile.
Those relocating for a brief period want to leapfrog into a compatible educational ecosystem. Those moving to India for good want to make that perfect, unerring decision that could make or break their family's adjustment to India.
Parents want to choose a school and an education system that together are most likely to make their kids happy, successful and well-prepared for admission to the most competitive colleges in India and abroad.
Read my succeeding posts for answers to the most asked questions about the Indian school system.
The next installment will answer:
What is CBSE?
What is ICSE?
Which is better: CBSE or ICSE?
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