I come from a family where a good education is valued above all other things. “Education is the only wealth we can give you that will never get depleted ”, my grandmother would tell all her grandkids.
Considering this, you would be surprised at the amount of time my parents spent in deciding the right school for me. One fine day, when I was not yet two and a half and had been particularly troublesome at home, it was decided that I would go to school – starting NOW. It was the middle of the year. Their only consideration was that it had to be close enough for my mother to pick me up and drop me. Oh, and it helped that my aunt was the principal.
Fast forward twenty odd years. I had actually managed to turn out quite decently. I had a good career, managed to marry a good man and had my own bundle of joy with whom I could try all my experiments on.
My son was not yet two years old when a woman who had a kid of the same age moved in next door. Armed with some sweets in one hand and my son in the other I went over to say hello.
After the initial introductions had been dealt with, my neighbor asked me enthusiastically, “So, have you decided which school you are going to put him in?” Err…no I was just about trying to get him to learn to say ‘amma’ and poop inside the bowl!
“But kids don’t go to school before 4”, I protested. My neighbor looked like I had just landed from mars. “But unless they go to a good play-school they don’t have a chance in hell of making it to a good pre-school. And if they don’t get into a good pre-school, well, no good school will touch you with a barge pole. And then you can kiss his IIT dreams goodbye”, she finished breathlessly. My only ambitions for my son at that point in time was for him to sleep through the night and learn to say my name, but I wisely refrained from sharing that with my irrepressible neighbor.
And thus began my quest for that perfect school. X school does not take kids with working mothers. Y school is known for corporal punishments. Z school is awesome. It has horse riding, swimming pool and a hands-on approach to learning. Great. There is one small problem, though. The fee is more money than what I make in a year. L school concentrates too much on academics, M school, not enough. N school was perfect but my little baby had to get up at 6 in the morning and travel halfway across town to make it to school on time. They anyway preferred siblings of existing students and kids of old students so, we can safely rule that one out as well.
Some schools like to maintain an air of mystery and their selection process was as much of a secret as the location of the Holy Grail. And at least, you had the crusaders trying to look for the grail. Here, all you had was a bunch of hapless parents hoping and praying like they have never prayed before, that their progeny makes it. Oh, and if you call to ask them the status, they do not answer the phone. And if you go in person, their watchman drives you away. Yes, you heard me right. He actually drives you away with a stick.
I am strongly beginning to believe that the great Indian education system is a leveler. Whether you are the head honcho of a multi-million corporation or a humble software engineer, you all queue up in front of the ‘good’ schools and go down on knees hoping your kids get admitted. And that watchman impartially chases all of you out - with his stick.
“What happened to regular, old-fashioned schools? You and I went to regular schools and we turned out okay, didn’t we?” my husband asked me, when my craziness had finally got to him. And that sentence set me thinking - about the madness that the education scene in India has become. Endless choices… skyrocketing fees… needless hype around some schools…paranoid and overzealous parents. All this for what?
At the end of the day, I do not care if my son does not learn how to swim or ride a horse in school. All I want for him is to be able to get an education. An education which will not only teach him ABCs but also teach him to appreciate that all families are not the same. That there are some families that can afford much better stuff for their kids and some that make their children value all that they have. And teach him to treat them all the same, for whom they are, rather than where they come from. I want for my son an education that will teach him to love life and respect people. I don’t particularly care if they have wi-fi access inside the school or not. I want an education, which will give him a lifelong thirst for knowledge, an education, which will not only enable him to stand up to the pressures of the competitive world, but also teach him to give up gracefully and know that one defeat is not the end of the world.
And if any of you know such a school in your neighborhood, do let me know. I am sure he will fit right in. And he’ll turn out okay.
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Sadhana writes for chillibreeze.
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