Education

It's that time of the year when young parents worry the most about their childrens' school admissions. We would like to work on a story on school fees in Bengaluru. Do help us with your inputs! Please fill the form. You are not obliged to leave your contact, but in case there's something that you want to talk to us about, please leave your contact in the form. Thank you! Related ArticlesDemand high but schools not keen: The story of Right to Education in BengaluruGovt fee guideline draft confuses schools and parents, stirs hornet’s nest

Arun (name changed), a driver by profession, admitted his three-and-half-year-old daughter to a prestigious “international” school at Cox Town in Bengaluru around three years ago. His daughter was lucky enough to get a seat under the 25 per cent quota of the Right to Education Act. The Act intends to provide free education to children from disadvantaged and weaker sections of the society in private unaided schools. The school was located at a distance of half kilometres from Arun’s home and his daughter would walk to school everyday. In fact, the school’s positioning served the purpose of ‘neighbourhood schooling,’ that…

I've been thinking about our education system a lot (again) lately. Mainly, I've been trying to figure out what it is, exactly, that I dislike about it. After much introspection (read: "Ten minutes of trying to come up with something to write about"), I decided that it was, mainly, the fact that we have subjects. While subjects are great for breaking everything down into bite-sized pieces and allowing you to pass your exams, they don't really give you an appreciation for what you're learning. For instance, if I were to learn in Physics about Young's Double Slit Experiment, I'll be…

Can government schools beat private schools in facilities? Yes, if there are people willing to lead a school in that direction. Head teachers in the schools are those who have such capacity. Here's a case of a school near Devanahalli's Kempegowda International Airport - Government Higher Primary School,  Hunasamaranahalli, Bangalore North - that got State Government's Model School Award in 2015. The head teacher got national award for best teacher in 2012. Padma Priya, a Radio Jockey at Radio Active 90.4 MHz, shares her memories of the school that she studied in, that has become a model now for other…

The CBSE action against NPS schools is a classic study of everything that is wrong in the way we manage education. Without going into the specifics of NPS itself, we should be able to see the wrinkles in the canvas. a. First, the public school system is bad. To be precise, it is one of the WORST IN THE WORLD. It is so bad that even poor people are fleeing it, and putting children in private schools at their own cost. In Karnataka, only one out of three children who depend on the state pass high school, and even among…

Shivany Dowlat, a 7th grader at GEAR Innovation International School, concluded the presentation of her project on miscible and immiscible liquids with a trick question. “Do you keep our lakes clean?” If the answer was yes, she would quickly point to the lake directly behind her, Soul Kere off Sarjapur Road, and rebut. Soul Kere looks cleaner than many of Bengaluru’s lakes, but it still had small trails of trash visible from where Dowlat was standing. Pic: Kate Clark “Look at the plastic,” she said. “People come in and throw it, why? There’s a dustbin right there… You don’t keep…

Over the last three to four months, parents across various Indian cities have organised themselves to fight against against private schools over unregulated fee hikes. Protests have been staged against schools in Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Kerala and recently, in Hyderabad. In many cities, the school fee issue has reached judicial corridors this year. The Hyderabad School Parents’ Association (HSPA) received support from parents nation-wide, when they launched a “missed call campaign” last month. The Association gave a call to all parents to dial a number on a given day if they want school fee regulation. Reportedly, it received a total…

Two years ago, Anirudh, father of a 9th standard student and resident of HSR Layout, decided to admit his daughter to a boarding school managed by a former athlete in Kodagu. Anirudh strongly feels that in a city like Bengaluru it’s not possible to send the budding athlete for training in Kanteerava Stadium twice a day due to traffic. So the child was shifted from Bengaluru to Kodagu with the sole intention of providing her a better athletics training. Mallika Jaswanth is a mother of two school-going kids. She is a resident of Old Airport Road and works as a…

Last week, we covered the issue of many parents in Bengaluru protesting against the private schools hiking fees, which they say has doubled in last 4-5 years. But, is there another side to the story? Citizen Matters spoke to a few school managements and teachers. What are the costs involved in running a school? "It’s not just the maintenance expenses that the school managements have to bear, but the initial establishment cost too," says Dr M Srinivasan, Founder and Chairman of GEAR International School. For instance, he says, if a person had to buy two acres of land in a prime…

Deepanjali Mishra. Pic: Pravir B. Sukanti and Bhagirathi Mishra are on cloud nine. Since May 28, when the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) declared the results for Grade 10 board examination, these Whitefield residents are elated. Their daughter, Deepanjali, has done exceptionally well, securing A1 score in all five subjects. “My parents were really happy because it was their dream that I score well in 10th,” she exclaims when asked for her reaction. Her father is employed as a plumber in a housing complex, where her mother works as a cook. Her uncle is an electrician. “I was able…