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.