Education in India is starkly divided. On the one hand there are the ‘chalk and talk’-styled schools which stuff the child with archaic information, while on the other hand there are those which actually teach your child to analyze, understand and apply knowledge in context.
International Boarding Schools
in India
In a fast changing and dynamic world it is important that a child is not stifled by “the culture of silence” which the Indian education system principally offers. The respite though, is that the number of ‘thinking schools’ offering a spectrum of syllabi to choose from are rapidly increasing. Many of these new wave schools label themselves as international schools but it is important to sieve the grain from the chaff.
How do you know if a school is really International?
A quick look at the website or a visit to any of the so called international schools can easily tell you how international the atmosphere is. An environment where students and staff come from a mix of cultures and societies to learn and teach a syllabus which is designed to represent a global perspective would be the two main characteristics of a truly international school. A common misconception is that if the school offers any one or a combination of international curriculums such as the American, Canadian, the GCSE (British), the IB or the IGCSE (the international component of the British GCSE), it automatically becomes an ‘international school.’ The assumption is erroneous because ‘international’ really means a milieu where cross-cultural contact and pedagogy is practiced and the only two systems which actually incorporate this are the IB and the IGCSE. Most international schools in India offer a combination of the ICSE, IGCSE and the IB, the first two evolving from a common parenthood, the Cambridge University system, while the latter saw its beginnings in 1968 in Switzerland to aid the children of diplomats.
Why choose the International Baccalaureate Program?s
The IBO’s philosophy states that, “These programs encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people with their differences can also be right.” A good school is expected to practice this credo in real time to make an international education worthwhile.
The IB program consists of three different stages. The Primary Year Program (PYP) for children aged 3 to11, the Middle Year Program (MYP) for students between the age of 11 and 16 and the Diploma Program (DP) which is equivalent to the 11th and 12th year of study in India. Although it is not necessary for a child to progress though the three different programs sequentially, the advantages of the IB program over the ICSE or the CBSE are worth looking into. The IB curriculum insists on instilling what it calls, “international mindedness or intercultural awareness” right from the PYP level. Another interesting element which is completely absent in the national curriculum is the process of integrating knowledge which allows students to “make connections across disciplines.” Children see how Math is used in Geography (measuring rainwater and taking averages) or Poetry (in the form of rhythm and meter) and Math suddenly seems less abstract than it was before.
The PYP and MYP students are taught to learn beyond mere content which allows them to apply basic principles in new and creative contexts, a far cry from the Indian system which is partial towards retention and regurgitation.
Assessment too in the IB program is based on problem solving activities, investigating facts in a current context, debates, experiments, analysis and reflection. The same philosophy translates into the rigorous and demanding Diploma Program where students are challenged to stretch their minds, studying syllabi which could easily be mistaken for material studied in the first year of any undergraduate course in India. To cite an example, students of Literature are expected to read authors from all around the world in English and in translation ranging from Anita Desai to Franz Kafka to Leo Tolstoy.
Arguments suggest that the Diploma Program is tough. The additional compulsory elements such as the Extended Essay – a mini thesis, Theory of Knowledge – a course which questions the basis of learning and the learnt, and the Creativity, Service and Action program where students have to show documented proof of participating in the arts, social service and sport, does make the course challenging. But the system allows for understanding rather than memorizing which eases the load off the students tremendously. This methodology of learning also allows students from other boards to easily integrate into the IB systems, although the preferred syllabus in India for entry into the IB is the IGCSE.
The Diploma Program no doubt arms the child with the right skills to cope with stringent University education, revealing to them that learning is not a ‘one text book’ affair but a compilation of knowledge from different sources and points of view, which is to be interpreted rather than reproduced.
International Education in the Indian Context
The IBO lists a total of 49 schools offering the IB curriculum in India . Most of these schools are privately owned and offer only the DP program. Prohibitive costs and the assimilation process due to lack of trained teachers make offering the spectrum of IB courses difficult. The American School and Ecole Mondiale in Mumbai offer all three courses, the PYP, MYP and the DP. The rest offer a combination of the ICSE or CBSE till the 7th standard and then a choice to move to the IGCSE. Most of the schools have a mix of Indian and international teachers but deal with a homogenous group of students except a few like the Mahendra United World College near Pune (only DP) and the Kodaikanal International School (MYP and DP) which offer a truly international experience, admitting students from all over the world. A quick search at the IBO website (www.ibo.org) or (http://www.universities.ibo.org/ibo/) for International schools in India will provide you with the necessary information and homepages of the respective schools. The schools to be avoided are the ones which only offer international facilities but not the curriculum or the atmosphere.
The Advantages and Disadvantages
Considering the pedantic and lackluster attitude of the national curriculums, international education offers a fresh outlook towards the changing needs of a learner. The educational worth of the IB program is unsurpassable, especially when targeted at future world citizens. In addition the international schools in India offer a good mix of cutting edge teaching methodology and internationalism built on the necessary foundations of an Indian ethos. Universities all over the world place a high value on the Diploma Course and accept IB students readily, sometimes even offering scholarships.
The handicap lies in the crossover from an international system to an Indian system of education. The Associations of Indian Universities has been unfair to the IBO. Though the IB diploma is a valid entry level course to colleges in India the grade conversion does not mirror the effort put in by the students. The Diploma Program marks students on a scale of 1 to 7 where 1 is ‘very poor’ and 7 is ‘excellent’. When the same is converted to an Indian system, 6 and 7 represent a broad bandwidth of marks between 80% and 100%. The cut-throat competition in India where the cut off for top colleges vary in decimal places puts a question mark on a 6 or 7. In spite of the differences students have successfully enrolled in courses in Indian Universities and one only hopes that as international systems become more common in the country, universities will give them their due.
So, is an international education worthwhile? Absolutely! If you can afford the best then why not offer your child the best. But it is important to ascertain how international the school is, before taking a decision. As parents if you believe that intelligence lies not in imitation but in making connections and extrapolations, and want your child to see similarities between cultures and gain a healthy respect for humankind with all its differences, an international school is the one for your child. There is no denying that international education prepares your child for a multicultural future, and the same in India, offers the best of both worlds - the traditional and modern.
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—About our writer:
Sushil is a writer living and working in a village near Kullu. He teaches in a small school there. His first book of poems and short fiction, Book of Crumbs, was published by Writers Workshop, Calcutta late last year.
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