Which curriculum is best suited for your child? Is there a school that gives importance to both academics and extracurricular activities?
Admission season is well under way as emotionally fraught parents try to make the best choice for their children. And many are hoping to get answers at the Bangalore Schools Expo next month.
The genesis of this platform — which aims to bring students, parents and schools together — was a social media page on Facebook made seven years ago by one parent. Called Bangalore Schools, it began with a handful of followers, but has grown over the years. Today, it has nearly 43,000 members, a majority of whom are parents.
Firsthand review
In 2012, Shweta Saran, whose daughter is now a little over nine years old, made the page with the intention of helping people get reviews on schools from other parents. It has since evolved to cover more issues that are actively discussed. A group of parents help run the platform.
“We want to give a voice to parents; to educate parents them; and also make school managements accountable. For instance, we try and make our members aware of several policy issues and have been advocating that admission tests for children be banned. We also ask parents to check the weight of the school bag after the state government passed an order on this,” she said. They’ve also made attempts to help parents and school managements work together, with varying measures of success.
The social media page allows parents to take ‘virtual’ tours of 15 schools through Facebook live, which is followed by FAQs on various topics such as pupil-teacher ratio in classrooms, curriculum followed and so on.
Ms. Saran is happy to see it grow into a large-scale extended support base. The administrators of the group say that they “seriously want to try and change the system.” The idea to organise an expo took root after they received requests from parents to organise events offline as well. Some schools have also agreed to come on board as sponsors.
A lot of thought and planning has gone into it. Manoj Thelakkat, co-admin, Bangalore Schools, said that they have been visiting several expos in the last one-and-half years. “We found that most of them were about assisting enrolment drives, or B2B expos where vendors were trying to connect with schools and vice versa. None of them connected parents, students, educators, school managements and service providers on one platform and our expo tries to bring them together,” he said.
Parents believe it will be a “good way to understand the education eco-system”. Some of the planned activities include panel discussions and activities for children. “We will have stalls for vendors like education entrepreneurs, vendors, companies selling ed-tech products, bookstores and publishers,” Ms. Saran added.
The event also aims to provide a platform to non teaching staff such as helpers and bus drivers. Some of the panel discussion will be conducted on the following topics: homeschooling and alternative spaces, which syllabus should you choose for your child and why.
The expo will be held on January 4 and January 5 at NIMHANS convention hall. Entry is free.
