Drawbacks in Traditional schooling | Educational board? | part 4

Part 3 continued… click here to read part 3 of this article

The article here refers to only those schools which run under a targeted category

DRAWBACKS WE SAW IN TODAY’S
SCHOOLING SYSTEM WITH OUR DAUGHTER:

A fundamental understanding of education,
or the ability to absorb knowledge, is essential for a successful life.

1. Most of the schools in the city today offer air-conditioned classrooms for various reasons. A school with good infrastructure definitely needs centralized air conditioning. Classrooms are always kept in dark mode due to LED screens teaching and preventing glare on the board. Many parents are looking for good infrastructure in schools for their children, and searching for such schools has become a real task today.
2. This is noticed mostly from Grade 1 onwards in most of the schools. Till kindergarten, the use of chalkboard systems promotes dust allergy within the centralized air-conditioned classrooms. With our daughter suffering from allergic rhinitis, every third day our daughter would come home sneezing and catching the flu; eventually the weekends were spent on flu and fever recovery.
3. My daughter never had the need to take a single medicine until she was 3 years old. She kept fit and healthy always. The sudden change in her schedule triggered a lot of stress, and she started falling sick. She also has allergy issues with antibiotics. She cannot be put on antibiotics, as she develops an allergic reaction on her skin that was categorized under life-threatening situations. The only option we were left with was to keep her medicine-free life. Although mild medicines never affected her, children of this age cannot be treated with them alone.
4. This is noticed mostly from Grade 1 onwards in most of the schools. Till kindergarten, the use of chalkboard systems promotes dust allergy within the centralized air-conditioned classrooms. With our daughter suffering from allergic rhinitis, every third day my daughter would come home sneezing and catching the flu; eventually the weekends were spent on flu and fever recovery.
5. With her dermatitis issue, she cannot be put in a constant heat and sweat environment, so an air-conditioned classroom was a must that time. With growing pollution in cities, every third school is air-conditioned, and the remaining schools lack quality infrastructure.
6. The fees are demandingly expensive, God knows for what reason, because eventually the homework, project, event, occasion—every single burden—is put on parents. The children have to juggle between school pressure and parents, and then what makes them charge in lakhs per annum for a child is unbelievable. Nowadays, due to all the societal pressures, it has become difficult to welcome another child into the family. With both parents working in high-stress jobs and no extended support, it’s even more challenging.
7. Schools keep shuffling the division every year. Saying that the kids need to be adaptive. What, seriously, at the ages of 4 and 5?? The one thing they look forward to going to school for is friends. And they steal away that also? How are they going to learn to handle friendships and relationships if every year they have to keep making new ones and forgetting old ones? It’s unfair. Why not keep 50% of the classroom the same and 50% shuffling in that case? Shuffle between 1-2 divisions and slowly increase to 3-4 divisions? The essence of socialization is lost, and children lose confidence in this fact! They end up bullying and aggressive, and the teachers don’t interfere when children are in conflict.
8. It’s an early corporate life for kids. Wake up at 5, leave at 7, stay till 4, and then if extra activities are demanding, stay till 5 or 6 pm. No playtime, as schools in the city have different timings. Children keep busy due to different demanding activities. At the end they have to go through stressful nights after having spent a daytime that has been too much for their age.
9. Having unhealthy meals in school or dried-out early morning packed meal boxes is something children find more depressing. Unable to eat them and unable to starve. They got to keep up highly energetic to the demanding challenges amid this situation. Lack of nutrition only leads to an imbalance of physical and mental health.
10. With both parents working, children’s lives become even more of a nightmare. Nanny, Day-Care and all are just worth less in today’s situation. Not every child gets to live with grandparents due to the parent’s work-life status. Not everyone is lucky enough to have understanding grandparents either. Many couples have to look at their own lives in many ways. Someone said it well, and I totally agree with it!

“It takes a whole village to raise a child.”

Just adding to unnecessary stress in the name of school is what the current situation is.
Now, post-pandemic, the learners are the most affected ones alongside many professions.
People still got educated without a physical school
while how things worked during lockdown.
But the real meaning of school is just lost for the pre-primary to primary age group – the basic foundation years.

The expenses associated with bus transportation are comparable to those incurred for organ donation. Driving our daughter to school is always a challenge due to the heavy traffic and congestion that occur 30 minutes prior to the closing of the gate, akin to struggling to surface from a deep ocean dive. Young children navigating through densely packed entrances evoke memories of boarding the crowded local trains in peak hours in Mumbai.

1. Working days for parents and children become stressful. A weekend becomes more of a nightmare with weeklong windups and backlogs. unexpected guest arrival and health issues. Homework is being loaded on Friday, and submission is demanded on Monday.
2. No time for hobbies and likes of interests. Children bullying each other at this age, schools offering no security to kids, and parents showing no response to this when informed by the school.
3. Attending school can feel like a gamble, as children are burdened by rules that create immense pressure. This is often labeled as competitiveness. Many diligent students dedicate their lives to education, yet some face tragic accidents or even lose their lives due to this stress.
4. For instance, last year’s news revealed that a 7th grader jumped off a school building & lost their life, a 3rd grader suffered a fatal cardiac arrest, and a 5-year-old experienced epilepsy from the overwhelming pressure of school during class hours. The escalating demands of traditional education are undeniable, and young children should not have to endure this. There is no assurance that enduring such intense pressure from birth will lead to a successful future.
5. Today, we are faced with overcrowded school gates, washrooms and classrooms. The quality infrastructure is lacking, hygiene is poor, and there is a shortage of qualified educators. While some institutions address these issues, they are primarily residential schools, and we are not in favor of sending our young child away from home.
6. Some sports-oriented schools are only bothered about training the child at a very young age towards the sports. The ones who do well get selected into sports, and the rest are just left in the undercrowded facility. No option of choosing the sports is given. It’s only the school that decides what they will do with the child for everything.
7. In many schools today, from nursery through grade 4, the classwork books are kept in the classroom. When seasonal flu strikes or our daughter gets sick because of other ill children in the class, our attendance record for the week becomes concerning. Then, when parents finally manage to send their kids back to school, the management overwhelms them with missed assignments that must be completed in the classroom.
8. I have plenty more to express, but I must pause here. Each day, I am working on and getting ready for the future of our daughter and for ourselves.

• What board do I follow for our daughter’s homeschooling in India?

1. We have chosen to unschool our daughter, who is thriving as a homeschooler today. There is a gap of 3-5 years during which she can opt for traditional schooling or continue her homeschooling journey, a decision that will be made in due time.
2. Until the fourth grade, formal education is not mandatory for children. While I have always aspired to find the perfect school for her and occasionally continue my search, we were unable to locate one before she became disillusioned with traditional education.
3. She has the freedom to return to school whenever she desires, which is why I am actively monitoring her academic progress and ensuring her foundational skills remain strong.
4. We have charted a path forward, grounded in motivation. Our daughter is now gaining a broader understanding of the world through real-life experiences. I teach her at home, responding to her questions and introducing concepts as she is ready to learn.
5. I utilize both the NIOS and IB curricula with the publication that suits our requirements to ensure she stays academically aligned, believing this will benefit her if she decides to return to school in the future. She has a passion for art and immerses herself in it constantly, participating in various classes and workshops regularly. She studies advanced art, piano, and classical dance; with time, she will pursue more of her interests. We travel frequently, and I take the opportunity to educate her about laws, public etiquette, manners, and discipline as needed.
6. In the pursuit of competition, schools have significantly diminished the joy of learning and the quality of education. Our country’s education board has maintained a straightforward approach to prepare students for the future.

Having reached this point, I am certain my daughter will surpass us by tenfold.
That is my belief.
Regardless of circumstances, every child deserves an unwavering support from their parents. 

A JOYFUL CHILDHOOD PAVES THE WAY FOR A FULFILLING ADULTHOOD

Part 5 continued… click here to read part 5 of this article

Monisha C.