Choosing the right school for your child in this age of digital disruption has become a rather daunting task. Parents are continuously on a lookout for that perfect institution that will go on to become the foundation of their children’s future.
Not just academics, schools are responsible for the holistic development of a child. Therefore it is very important to ensure that your child gets into the right school so that they grow up into socially, morally and culturally responsible individuals.
However, the question remains, how do you find that appropriate institute for your children? What are the red flags to look out for and what are the points you should definitely consider while picking the right school? Let’s find out.
Faculty:
While selecting a school for your child it becomes very important to consider the faculty that your child will come in touch with. It tops the list because be it elementary school or high-school, teachers have a first hand impact on the child.
Make sure that the faculty members are well-equipped and have a good track record. Pay attention to the student-teacher ratio and understand how well the teachers interact with the students. A well-balanced ratio is indicative of the fact that each student is receiving the attention he/she requires and is not getting neglected.
The best way to do that is to visit the school personally and have in-depth discussions with the faculty members involved. Try and understand their body language and how well-versed they are when it comes to their teaching techniques.
Learning techniques:
Our kids are currently living in an era where technology dominates every sector, including education. With new and improved techniques of learning emerging everyday, it is important that the school you choose for your child has a faculty that is skilled to adopt these new techniques into their curriculum and impart it in a responsible way.
For instance, differentiation of learning where the teacher uses various mediums of instructions to teach similar material. Each student is unique and so are their learning abilities. The teachers need to proactively make prudent decisions to ensure that every student gets equal attention, and learn the concepts thoroughly.
To understand this in depth, as a parent you should ask these questions to the faculty members or have a conversation with a fellow parent who has her child enrolled in the school.
Infrastructure:
The world is changing at a faster pace than any of us could have imagined and it has become imperative for us to understand these changes and more importantly, equip our children with necessary skills to tackle them. For this to happen, you need to ensure that the school has state of the art facilities and a technological infrastructure that is future proof.
Talk to fellow parents who have their kids enrolled in the school or talk to the teachers and faculty members to get a deeper understanding of how well constructed the school infrastructure is. Here are a few questions you could ask:
What are the technologies the school uses?
How is the school trying to inculcate these technological advancement in the regular curriculum?
How well are the classrooms designed?
Does the school have other features like a sports arena, theater, fields to play and so on?
Does the school have a technologically advanced security system to ensure that the child is safe during school hours?
How does the school ensure that the kids use the internet safely?
What are laws and rules against cyber-bullying, considering the current scenario and how rapidly kids are falling prey to it these days?
The World Economic Forum has come up with a set of 10 skills that every student will need in the future, to land white-collar jobs. These questions will also help you understand if the school manifests these skills in their regular curriculum and how well prepared they are to help your child inculcate these skills in life and learning.
Curriculum:
Kids these days are under tremendous pressure of doing well at school which is why as a parent, you need to ensure that the child gets adequate break from the monotonous routine through extra-curricular activities.
Extra-curricular activities encourage the child’s desire to come to school daily and learn something new, therefore make sure that the prospective school has that incorporated into their daily structure.
Where on one hand, academic preparation is important, on the other hand, extra-curricular activities are equally important because they teach a child important life lessons like working in a team, challenging boundaries and trying new things.
Therefore choose a school that has a school curriculum designed in a way that it creates a good balance between academics and activities.
Values:
Children are growing up in a world that is limitless. Thanks to the growing obsession with social media, they are exposed to everything at a very young and vulnerable age. The school plays a very big role in ensuring that the power of the internet is not exploited by these impressionable children, rather it is harnessed in the right direction.
As a parent you need to be able to trust the school and its faculty to inculcate the right values in your kids which will help them grow up into responsible and educated human beings.
This can happen through numerous activities like encouraging students to volunteer for various positive causes that can be found over the internet, teach them how to empathize with others, impart the value of being kind and generous and lay emphasis on emotional and intelligence quotient in equal measure. Let them use this digitization to their advantage and direct their energy in the right direction, by imparting valuable life lessons.
Easier said than done, this is a decision that will put your child on a long and winding path to a brighter tomorrow, which requires careful deliberation and a lot of sleepless nights. While that might intimidate you now, you will be thankful in the future when you see your child grow up into a well brought-up and a responsible individual.