International Schools Vs National Schools

“Which is the best school in Worli” my neighbour asked me a few months ago. This was a very subjective question which can’t be answered directly. There are a lot of factors which need to be considered, and maybe the principal amongst them is - whether to choose a national school or an international school?

For the longest time, international schools were deemed to be only for the really rich people. Middle-class people were satisfied with sending their kids to SSC or, if they could, ICSE or CBSE board schools. There was also a lot of stigma against international schools for being insanely expensive and alienating kids from Indian culture.

In truth, people couldn’t be farther from reality. International schools are carefully planned so as to give the best schooling experience for kids. It is true that they are a bit expensive, but for the most part, they are worth the expense because of the kind of education they provide. In fact, one should think of them in terms of an investment for your child’s future.

National schools solely focus on the intellectual element of the child’s growth. They have more difficult cirriculams, and the extent of competitiveness is very high, but at the end of the day, pushing kids doesn’t always work.

On the other hand, international schools are designed to encourage each child to develop into her own self or his own self. They allow them to explore themselves by designing syllabus which has grade systems.

National schools have a certain amount of rigidity when it comes to the learning processes. On the other hand, international schools really try to incorporate learnings from new research taking place around the world on a regular basis.

One might argue that not all parents can afford to send their kids to international schools, and while that might be correct in its own way, there is no reason why a national school shouldn’t try to reduce the rigidity and incorporate some important lessons from international schools.

There is absolutely no point in teaching kids by forcing them to learn certain things - be it formulae of Math or Science. At the cost of covering lesser topics and spending more time and resources, kids should be taught to learn rather than teaching them concepts.

The rat race in national schools is also something that should be done away with. We already live in a society where the level of  comparision is very high and the rat race only ads to the pressure on the innocent minds. Hence, a system which allows kids to become the best versions of themselves despite whatever weaknesses they have is much better for the general moral fabric of kids.

We are fortunate enough that we live in a country where there are ample options for parents in terms of which school to send their kid to. Even parents in a small city have best international schools at their disposal. We should all thank our stars and makre sure that we do our best to provide our children with the best that is possible!