Indian boards ‘downmarket’, IB students reap the benefit
Anahita Mukherji I TNN
Mumbai: There’s a clear bias in schools where international boards operate out of the same building as ICSE or SSC schools. In some cases, school managements give preferential treatment to children from the international boards. Kids from these boards are also conscious of the fact that they are coughing up three times the fee that their counterparts in “downmarket’’ Indian boards pay.
For instance, SSC students at Podar International School, Santa Cruz, have suddenly been told that they cannot be issued books from the school library—they can only read books while sitting in the library. On the other hand, children from the IB school that runs in the same building are allowed to take home library books. This has caused an uproar among parents. The management, however, has completely denied this and said that all children are equally important to them.
However, while the management says that it “believes in the SSC curriculum’’, the parents aren’t convinced. Especially since they received circulars during the admission season earlier this year, giving them the option of joining the ICSE and CBSE schools run by the same management. Incidentally, TOI has information that ICSE and CBSE students were not given similar circulars during admission time, giving them the option of joining the SSC school.
At another upmarket suburban school, Jamnabai Narsee at Vile Parle, where classes for the IB section are conducted on the sixth floor, IB students are allowed to use the lift, along with the staff. The rest of the children simply walk up the stairs, even those with classes on the fifth floor.
“Kids from international boards are acutely aware that they are coughing up a fee of Rs 1 lakh compared to their counterparts from the ICSE section who only pay Rs 35,000,’’ say parents of those studying in Jamnabai. In fact, they often mock ICSE kids for being “nerds’’ who’re studying hard for a high Std X score that’ll help them get into an Indian college whereas the kids in the international board feel that an IGCSE-cum-IB qualification is a ticket to the Big Apple.
Principal Josephine Vaz, however, says she hasn’t come across any instances of snobbishness in the school.
For instance, SSC students at Podar International School, Santa Cruz, have suddenly been told that they cannot be issued books from the school library—they can only read books while sitting in the library. On the other hand, children from the IB school that runs in the same building are allowed to take home library books. This has caused an uproar among parents. The management, however, has completely denied this and said that all children are equally important to them.
However, while the management says that it “believes in the SSC curriculum’’, the parents aren’t convinced. Especially since they received circulars during the admission season earlier this year, giving them the option of joining the ICSE and CBSE schools run by the same management. Incidentally, TOI has information that ICSE and CBSE students were not given similar circulars during admission time, giving them the option of joining the SSC school.
At another upmarket suburban school, Jamnabai Narsee at Vile Parle, where classes for the IB section are conducted on the sixth floor, IB students are allowed to use the lift, along with the staff. The rest of the children simply walk up the stairs, even those with classes on the fifth floor.
“Kids from international boards are acutely aware that they are coughing up a fee of Rs 1 lakh compared to their counterparts from the ICSE section who only pay Rs 35,000,’’ say parents of those studying in Jamnabai. In fact, they often mock ICSE kids for being “nerds’’ who’re studying hard for a high Std X score that’ll help them get into an Indian college whereas the kids in the international board feel that an IGCSE-cum-IB qualification is a ticket to the Big Apple.
Principal Josephine Vaz, however, says she hasn’t come across any instances of snobbishness in the school.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment