Few Things to Ensure Before Enrolling Your Child in a School

Other than deciding to have a child, the most monumental of decisions regarding kids is the school they should be sent to once they are of age. One may argue that there is no particular “right school for the kids” and that one has to make the most of the opportunities provided. But one has to ensure that they do the right thing by taking the right first step. Since it is about the future of your child, you need to evaluate every school on certain parameters before closing in on the best among the options: 

The Staff

New entrants to the school (and their parents) have the opportunity to interact with the school’s principal. A meeting with the school principal & staff can give the parents insight on the type and quality of student-teacher bond the school forms. For example, IB schools in Delhi and NCR region may have a different style of teaching and building a friendly rapport with the students. And then there might be other schools who prefer to maintain the more formal teacher-student relationship. Meeting the principal also helps parents understand the mindset and the authority the school will run on.

Past Achievements

This is to be evaluated if you know the school has been around for a while. This is good enough time for schools to step up and create a base for academic & extra-curricular excellence. There are inter-school competitions held around the academic year where various schools compete. Their training levels, winning rates help develop a perception about the school, staff and the facilities behind the same. Additionally, one may always look up school alumni and how they have performed, to know whether your child can reach his/her potential by enrolling here.

Facilities & Infrastructure

The various facilities made available to a child can really help them bloom. So, a parent should understand what all will be accessible to their little one. From the teacher-student ratio to facilities such as well-maintained sports field, a stocked library, hygienic canteen, there are things a parent can watch out for when visiting the school. These add value by developing your child’s personality by giving them the freedom to explore beyond the books on their table. A well-developed sports facility which is mostly available in ICSE schools in Gurgaon and NCR can also you’re your child’s raw talent, positioning them to be the next best sports star of the country. 

Commercials

School education is expensive, therefore one needs to consider the cost as well and whether it is affordable at the current salary the family is drawing. Distance from the school also matters here because transportation is an additional cost that is added to the school fee, and the cost usually increases exponentially with the school. There are other expenses such as uniform, books, stationery that also need to be considered.

Mid-Day Meal Scheme in India

Mid-day meal scheme in India includes the provision of lunch free of cost to all government school students on all working days. Some important objectives of this scheme include reducing classroom hunger, increasing enrolment, having attendance, improved socialization, inclusivity, and addressing malnutrition. It is also involved in social empowerment by providing employment to women under the mid-day meal scheme. This is the largest meals scheme and is very popular in India but it faces many challenges like gross irregularities and casteism. Despite facing challenges, it has achieved a lot in fighting malnutrition and improving enrolment in government schools making government schools competitive to some of the top schools in Delhi and other best schools in India.   

Challenges In Mid-Day Meals Scheme

Poor Quality Of Food

There are so many complaints regarding the poor quality of food in the mid-day meal scheme. The food supplied to students of government schools in India is not sufficient to meet the required nutritional standards. Along with the quality, there is discriminated supply of meals regarding the quantity. There can be many reasons for this. One of the major reasons can be undedicated workers and officials as some of them may try to make a profit out of this government scheme. At some point in the hierarchy, there is something irrelevant and the mid-day meal scheme is facing challenges regarding its proper management and delivery.

Gross Irregularities

Actual children being benefitted from the mid-day meal scheme are very less compared to that furnished by the states to the Ministry of Human Resources to claim the costs of cooking and food grains. Inflated transportation facility to schools is the other major irregularity in the mid-day meal scheme. This along with other gross irregularities is leading to a consistent decline of the enrolment of students in government schools. 

Casteism

The claws of casteism are definitely prevalent in the mid-day meal scheme in India. Some student bodies during their visits to some government schools have found the practice of casteism during the mid-day meal scheme. They have reported about the caste discrimination between the dalits or other lower caste students and upper caste students of the school. Some lower caste students are not even allowed to serve food to upper caste fellows or they are not even considered to be mere equals. This kind of discrimination is the prime reason for the dropout of nearly 20% of government school students.