A school before 2 decades used to be a
building with classrooms, staffrooms and a principal’s cabin. There used to be
missionary schools, government schools and school run in the name of some trust
or a particular philanthropic individuals. Many schools used to propagate
religion as they were funded by religious trust, government schools focussed on
reaching to grassroots for public programs, education and child development
used to be second priority for them.
Schools since last few years are different.
Across India we are seeing secular schools becoming more popular. Government
schools are too much involved in election duty for teachers, health drive, food
program and various “abhiyans” for government. While they are very good
vehicles to drive those benefits to the hinterlands, urban parents dream that
if they earn little more they would send their child to a non-government
school.
A modern school is these days is popular
are totally different. They don’t just teach what is in the textbook. Finishing
curriculum in time is regarded as a basic responsibility. A lot of responsibilities
have been added.
Today’s school is expected to teach
computers. So one full subject added to about 10 years of child’s time at
school. Earlier one period of PE / PT (physical education or training) used to
be the norm. Now schools have Yoga, Badminton, Table Tennis, Lawn Tennis,
Cricket, Skating, Basketball, Football, Swimming, etc. or during different
academic years. There is a company which teaches sports as a curriculum, about
500 schools are their client imparting sports education to around 4 lakh
students across India.
Periods like life skills, library, maths
lab, and language lab are part of a high end school’s timetable which gives
break to students from the monotony of academic subject periods one after the
other. Health check-ups used to be merely height and weight, now it includes
dental and eye exam also.
The number of working days and the number
of hours of the school have remained the same and so has been the depth of the
academic curriculum. So why has the scenario changed so much?
Indian economy is growing but now the
country is developing also. Mere growth would mean increase in incomes of
families. But development on the other hand would mean that these income
translate to an increase in standard of living. The parents are expecting an
“all round” development of their child, which something they missed during
their childhood. Getting a top score in board exam is not the ONLY priority for
the parents. Becoming a good sportsperson, an artist, skilled at technology are
few other expectation of parents. Rather than becoming an expert parents are
wanting their children to be a great human being.
