Schools in Gurgaon : a review

This blog is somewhat different from my usual "all style and no content" blogs. This is a result of the research I was forced to do when I changed my daughter's school. Some of the things written in this blog are experiences shared by like-minded people though most of them are impressions formed by me during my visits to various schools. 
I thought of writing this down as we have a huge inflow of professionals moving into Gurgaon from various parts of the world. One of the first things they start looking for is a good school for their children. Hopefully, this blog will be of some help to them.
As per me, the schools in Gurgaon can be categorised into three categories 

A) Alternative school (Also known as Progressive schools) : 
These are the schools who follow a completely different methodology of teaching. Usually these schools will first stress on teaching orally and students are taught to write at a much later stage. Often these schools will not teach alphabets in their usual sequence but in context to how they are used in the children's perception. Thus they will probably teach "B" ahead of "A" as they would then try to teach the child how to spell "BALL". These schools also believe in not giving any homework and keeping a very low stress level on the children. 
Typical characteristics of these schools are 
1) Completely different teaching approach at the primary level. Does not follow the NCERT method at all. 
2) Teaching is often project-based or experience-based instead of text book based.
3) Usually has a setup for the children with special needs (with separate teaching staffs for them). 
4) Merges into regular NCERT / CBSE or ICSE format after class 8. 
5) Has plenty of outdoor activities like summer camps etc

There is some debate about this form of schools. The concern points raised by many parents are 

• their teaching methodology is excellent for young students but not so good for older children. Hence when the students reach Class 8 and is introduced to the conventional NCERT syllabus, most of the students don't fare well. 
• a child finds it extremely difficult to adjust into any other main stream school (in case one needs to change the school)  
• unconventional way of teaching - hence finding teachers and retaining them is a challenge.

The schools in this category are 

• Heritage School (Sector 62) : Pioneer in this form of teaching. Uniformly acclaimed as excellent among the progressive schools. Off late, there has been some report about the standard of the school having deteriorated. Also the students seem to find it difficult to merge into the NCERT based syllabus after Class 8 and consequently, there is a trend of students leaving Heritage after Class 5.
  Rating : 4/5
  Board : CBSE
• Shikshantar (South City I) : Excellent school in Progressive format. Seem to have a better balance between the progressive form and conventional form. Mid term admissions are not very easy.
  Rating : 4.5/5
  Board : CBSE
• Matri Kiran (Sohna Road) : New school started last year (is now till Class 3). The principal is the former principal of Shikshantar. The secondary section will be at Hero Honda Chowk.
  Rating : not known.
  Board : ICSE

B) International Schools :
The name can be deceptive as most of the schools these days have added "World" or "International" as their middle name. I am classifying those schools as "International" which have the following features
1) Will follow a modern form of teaching (may not be entirely progressive but a close second to this)
2) Will not have excessive academic pressure on the child (in line with international practices). Usually these schools will have less or no homework and parents are discouraged from teaching the child separately.
3) Will have SMART class rooms for all standards and all classes
4) Will have elaborate sports facilities (usually including a few exclusive facilities like Horse Riding, Golf etc)
5) Will have external faculties / institutions coming in for added value (like British council, external Theatre workshop, elocution classes etc)
6) Usually will also have options of other boards (IGCSE, OB etc)
7) If often accused to be a bit too flashy.

The following are the schools which fall in this category 

• Ridge Valley International School (Near Galleria Market) : New school backed by the India Today Learn India movement. Focuses majorly on self learning / project based learning. Expensive (approx 45k per quarter)
  Rating : 4/5
  Board : CBSE
• Lotus Valley International School (South City II) : New school (presently upto Class 8). Excellent facilities and innovative teaching methodologies. Tie up with several external institutions (British Council, Cambridge Education, Maxmuller Bhavan etc). Also has in-house councillors which is a great help for "problem" children. Already have an established school in Noida which is considered a premium school. Rating : 4/5.Board : CBSE
• Pathways : New school. Good setup. Has separate section for Special Needs children. Extremely expensive (approx 70k per quarter). Predominantly focuses on Expats and NRIs (the admission form asks whether you earn in Indian Rupees or Foreign currencies!!!)
  Rating : 3/5
  Board : IGCSE (Cambridge)
• Scottish High : One of the first true "international" school in Gurgaon. Well established and well known. They also have the best student:teacher ratio (15:1) among all the international schools. Off-late have heard a few negative remarks about this including some pretty damning stuffs on mouthshut.com. Expensive (approx 45k per quarter).
  Rating : 3.5/5
  Board : ICSE 
• Banyan Tree : Feedback on Internet is quite high. Did not check personally. Also heard that it is rather expensive.
  Rating : 3.5/5 (based on Internet)
  Board : ICSE
• American Excelsior :  Feedback on Internet is quite high. Did not check personallyRating : 3.5/5 (based on Internet)Board : IGCSE (Cambridge)
• Shiv Nadar : Just started. Has classes upto Class 5. Quite expensive (approx 45k per quarter). Still trying to find firm footings for itself - especially for the higher classes. 

There are a few others on which I have no feedback like 

• K.R.Mangalam World School
• G.D.Goenka World School
• Euro International 
• Indus World School

C) Conventional Schools

The feature of these schools are as under

1) Will follow the NCERT prescribed norms. Within this, the good schools with use techniques which are modern and more child-friendly. 

2) Academic pressure will be high. It is expected that the parent will also actively teach the child from an early age. 
3) Good schools may have SMART class rooms (though this is usually not common)
4) Good schools will have elaborate sports facilities (though conventional ones like football, cricket, basketball etc)

For such schools, it is recommended that one takes careful feedback from students / parents as often what they promise and what they deliver is starkly different. 
Grade 1 : Ratings between 3 to 5

• Sun City : Rated very high. Teaching style and staffs are extremely good. Good setup and nice balance between education and co-curriculars.
  NB : Is known to ask for donations and/or part of the entry fees in cash. I have personally not experienced this but a close friend had this experience.
  Rating : 4.5/5
  Board : CBSE 
• Sri Ram International : Could not even enter the reception after trying thrice. I believe one has to admit the child in nursery itself or will have to be a celebrity to even enter the school. Usually the interview will be conducted by the school "darwaan" and you will be shooed off with a flea in the ear.
  Rating : 3/5
  Board : ICSE 
• Shallom Hills
  New school. Modern style of teaching; child friendly.
  NB : Even for Class 1 children, they ask for an entrance test (carefully veiled under a phrase "bench-marking") while they themselves don't have exams till Class 5.
  Rating : 4/5
  Board : CBSE
• Delhi Public School Sector 45 : Standard good school. Academic pressure is on the higher side.
  Rating : 3.5/5
  Board : CBSE 
• Amity International Sector 43 and Sector 46 : Standard good school.  Nice infrastructure (in Sector 46), large playground. The student : teacher ratio is a bit on the higher side.
  NB : Even for Class 1 children, they ask for an entrance test.
  Rating 3/5
  Board : CBSE
• Salwan Public School : Standard good school.  Nice infrastructure. Uses good tools and modern methodology.
  Rating 3.5/5
  Board : CBSE
• DAV Public School : Standard good school.  Focusses mainly on academics and lacks other supports.
  Rating 3/5
  Board : CBSE

Grade 2 : Ratings below 3

• Ryan International - Sector 40 
• Delhi Public School - Shushant Lok / Sector 29
• Delhi Public School - Maruti Kunj / Sector 28
• Summer Fields
• Tagore International (now called Rabindranath World School): Excessive academic pressure. Old fashioned method of teaching. Has a reputation of hitting children regularly.
  Rating : 1/5
• Blue Bells 

There are many more schools in category 3 on which I have no feedback.  A list of some of these are 

• Presidium Galleria / Mother's Pride
• Presidium Sector 57 
• Alpine Convent School
• Salwan School 
• Manav Rachna 

It would be nice to get some feedback or review on these schools. 

I got plenty of help from some Internet sites which the readers may also find interesting. These are :
- http://livingingurgaon.blogspot.com
- http://www.parentree.in
- http://www.gurgaonscoop.com
And finally, there is no point in writing this blog unless we have discussions on this. I would sincerely urge all parents having school going kids to put their opinions as comments to this blog. This would certainly help the parents in Gurgaon who are in the hunt for a good school.

Note : Comments on this blog has been closed.

Gurgaon Diaries - 1

I landed up in Gurgaon on 2^nd June 2010, after an eight-year stay at my adopted hometown Mumbai. The welcome was not altogether pleasant as it was hot (37 deg C at 8:30 pm in the evening!!), my luggage was the last on the conveyor and I was tired. The tiredness was probably more mental than physical – caused by the psychological effort of moving out of my comfort zone, both in terms of location as well as job.

The hotel, a simple and unpretentious one in Gurgaon called “Bax” (god knows who chose the name), fortunately could provide me a room immediately and also promised that food will be available incase I wish to partake the same. The room was perfect except one near-fatal defect – namely, the air conditioning does not work. To be fair, it switches on, makes a great deal of noise, its flaps move when I press the appropriate switch on the remote and even it displays the temperature. It only refuses to cool down the room temperature!! I suppose some undemanding gentleman would accept this rather than be a terrible bother but at 37 deg C, I couldn’t care less. A quick visit to the reception and a brief eye-to-eye no-nonsense conversation with the receptionist ensured that I was immediately shifted to a different room with an ambiguous assurance that this new room has a “Split AC”. I was too tired to explain that I have no moral objection to window ACs, especially so since I happen to have two of them at my place; my requirement – and this I am rather tiresomely firm about - is that the AC should function. When I say function, I mean there should be a perceptible drop in room temperature once it is switched on. This new room with the “Split AC” which was so highly spoken about, unfortunately did not quite fulfill this demand of mine. For sure, it was better than the previous one but the improvement cannot really be described as substantial. On the other hand, this room had a television whose remote required strong fingers and a very purposeful mind as every button had to be pressed with extremely hard and that too several times. The effect was also somewhat unpredictable as often the channels changed on their own – some sort of a delayed effect of the remote being pressed 15 minutes back.

Having explored all possibilities with the AC and the TV, I picked up the menu card. A call to the room service revealed that only about 5% of the menu is actually available and that too would probably have a waiting period of at least an hour. I chose to have only plain curd – which seemed to be the safest bet amongst the available 5% menu and was promised that this would be delivered in less than an hour. This proved to be true excepting the fact that when the plain curd was delivered, they also delivered two plain parathas with it as "complimentary" . I had a long and desultory conversation with the room service and subsequently with the manager wherein I insisted that I wanted plain curd and just the curd – without any accompaniment of parathas, however tempting they might be; the room service chap maintaining that it is against their policies to serve “just a plain curd” to any of their guests. It seems that it is impossible for an honest and innocent man to have "just plain curd" in this hotel without severely offending the delicate sense of hospitality of the staff.

After this ratherbeventful night, I moved into my new flat on the next day. This part went through like a clock-work. The watchman, a friendly bloke called Mithilesh proved to be one of the most well organized gentlemen I have ever met. Within 5 minutes of me entering the flat, the newspaper-wala was fixed up, housemaid was arranged for, a plumber was sent to check whether there is any leakage and the telephone number of the nearest grocery store was handed over. The aforementioned gentleman, very helpfully, informed me that the grocery store does home delivery and also promised me to introduce to the nearest restaurant who also delivers food at home within a reasonable time. I was seriously contemplating on whether to offer him a job in my previous organization as the facility management head and finally decided not to do as it lead to his losing his entrepreneur spirit and eventually becoming another of those rule-abiding, moss-laden dimwitted nincompoops which only a large conservative organization can produce.

Thus ended my first day in Gurgaon; non-functioning AC, weirdly hospitable waiters and a quick-gun watchman. Let's see what the next days reveal.