Expat in India Shares thoughts About Schooling, Schools and Bangalore

chillibreeze writer — KC Komal

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Greetings! The long silence from this end was partly due to the onset of my annual educational angst. Not for me the usual parenting questions of right and wrong, and answering the toughies about death and birth. Oh no, I go straight to the intangible, unanswerable and totally debatable question of schooling.

The confession first: I tend to be an educational maverick. The philosophy I share with a few of my friends (you know who you are) tends to lean towards little or no homework, loads of unstructured time, hands on and manipulative learning, a developmental curriculum, and a largely tie and dye attitude towards authority.

To give you a better idea, let me give you a concrete example. Teaching reading tends to repeat in ten year cycles. Phonics, whole language, phonics, whole language… you get the idea. I, on the other hand, think that reading comes from being exposed to books early and often, a bit of a jump start with phonics and then hours of reading to and with kids. Mathematically, I don’t see that much value in the ability to compute vast numbers of high speed. Yes, a certain amount of speed is required, so you can keep up with complex operations, instead of stopping to reinvent the wheel by adding from scratch each time. But by and large, to me, mathematical ability is more application than computation. Gasps of horror from all the type A, right brain people out there, but that’s what you are dealing with here.

So when we moved to India, I looked at the schooling options out there. I have always been impressed by the IB curriculum. The trans-curricular approach, the research and enquiry even primary kids were trained to do, the multiple intelligences approach were all ideas that I really admired. Plus it doesn’t hurt that the IB is a well respected curriculum, and one that was welcomed by colleges across the world.

The other issue with local schools was second language. My daughter would be in middle school and it seemed unfair to stick a new language on her as well as the challenges of adjusting to a new environment. So that ruled out most of the excellent local schools in Bangalore which would have required a reasonable amount of proficiency with a local language. Another school, with a international approach to learning, Aditi Mallya we ruled out because of distance. With my husband working at ITPL in Whitefield, it seemed like the whole family would be commuting for hours if we lived in Northern Bangalore.

Down at the southeastern end of Bangalore were a cluster of International schools with various levels of IB accreditation. The ones most mentioned were The International School Bangalore, Indus International School and Inventure Academy. Be warned tempers fly when schools are discussed, and the factions are deeply divided. All disclaimers apply and opinions expressed are solely mine and the friends I have chatted with.

The International School Bangalore, or TISB as it is called, seemed to me to be your standard college prep school. It offers ICGSE until the last two years of school at which point it switches to the IB diploma program. It has the usual upscale facilities international schools seem to come with and is reportedly even planning a 9 hole golf course for the students.

Indus International is a relatively newer school. It offers IB for both the primary years and the diploma program and offers ICGSE for the middle years. Since I wanted the IB primary years program for my son, Indus was more attractive curriculum wise. Then I started looking more closely at the extra curriculars. There were subtle differences, but important ones for me. Indus offered more PE, weekly swim, a choice of sports, more musical instruments, drama from primary all the way up and a choice of second languages that included German, French and Spanish. TISB did not. At TISB swim classes were every other week, and more limited choices for sports and music. French was the only second language choice for most of the grades, and we felt that in largely Latino California, Spanish would be of more use to our kids. Discipline was said to be better at TISB but some reported it was almost too strict. The other point that appealed to me was the amount of parent participation at Indus. Parents regularly volunteer in the class room and parents are invited to everything from small end of unit celebrations, to class plays.

Inventure Academy was another school that expats sent their kids to, but though it seemed like a good option, I wanted the IB accreditation for PYP and DP that only Indus offered.

Not that all was sunny at Indus. Partly because of the IB philosophy, the school’s inclusive policy, and very hands on method of teaching, classrooms could and often be chaotic. For parents used to a traditional top-down method of teaching, where the teacher stands in front and teaches, the classrooms filled with chattering, wandering kids were unnerving. On the other hand, universally, parents felt that their kids were happy at Indus, and that it had been an easy transition for the kids moving from various countries and backgrounds. Faced with the choice of a traditional prep school with a strict, no nonsense approach to discipline and a laid back, child centered, atmosphere, I went with what seemed like a more rounded education. Staff turnover has been high in International schools all over India, especially for IB trained teachers, and Indus has been accused of poaching teachers from other IB schools regularly. I am not qualified to report on that.

There are two more international schools in Bangalore. One is the Canadian school in north Bangalore. Friends who had their kids there told me frankly that academically the school was not challenging their kids. There seemed to be a certain amount of dissatisfaction at least among the parents I spoke with, and with the north Bangalore location factor, I did not pursue that very seriously. As we speak, a new school opens up in north Bangalore, Mastery International. Based on the Calvert curriculum it promises a solid, challenging education, but since it is yet to open, all bets are off.

So here we are, almost at the end of our first academic year here. On the positive side, my rather quiet son has grown in self confidence and assertiveness. Whether turning 9, or whether his warm and nurturing teacher has  done that is moot. He has made friends, learnt some leadership skills and on the whole seems to have settled down without too many problems. He would like the class room environment to be more structured and disciplined, but he has fun at school. The pre-teen daughter is more ambiguous. School is OK she says but the teachers in California seemed to enjoy teaching more and tried to make their subjects more exciting. On the other hand, she has more time than her peers in California and I think it is good for her to be away from the high pressure environment of Bay Area schools. Both student and parent perception is that there needs to be more discipline with rules consistently enforced, but at the same time, they do not feel intimidated by their teachers.

As you can see, there are no easy answers. Ultimately it is what works for your kids. Mine do better with a more nurturing and more rounded environment. However, I know for others a more disciplined and more academic  program works better. So when my educational al angst hit a few months ago, I toured all the likely schools again. No concrete answers, they all had pluses and minuses, and for us, there was no compelling reason to move. So we shelved the angst for one more year and settled down for the last haul until summer break.

 

—About our writer:

"KC refuses to limit herself to one label. Among the many hats she wears are: Full time mom, part time writer, teacher, chef, art collector, gardener, quilter and extremely good vacationer. She has lived in Northern California for close to 20 years and has spent most of those years stopping frequently to smell the roses and plant some lavender. After two decades in Silicon Valley her husband will be working from Bangalore. KC has two children, a 12 year old daughter and an 8 year old son.
 

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