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By Rajkamal Rao
Go back to Education
Section 7h. Transitioning your kids to Indian schools
It is an unfortunate fact of life that children transitioning to Indian schools from the west, especially the US and Canada, have to sacrifice their entire summer holidays during the relocation year. This is because of the way the school calendars conflict in both countries.
A typical school year in India starts around June 1 and goes through March 31 with two months off - in April and May - for summer. The US school year typically starts mid-August and runs through the the first week of June. Children who choose to complete their school year in the US will therefore have to start their new term in India almost immediately, with little or no break at all.
This is why choosing your India neighborhood which has a large number of potential friends for your children is crucial. The first 4 - 6 weeks of a typical Indian school year are relatively slow and these give your kids a chance to make new friends.
One other selling point that you can make to your children is that the Indian school year, while admittedly longer than in the US, is replete with holidays. Here’s a good list. Note that all holidays may not involve days off from school and not all holidays are celebrated in all regions.
New Years Day, January 1
Republic Day, January 26
Basant Panchmi
Barawafat
Mahashivratri
Holi Holidays
Ram Navmi
Mahaveer Jayanti
Good Friday - summer vacation, 2 months, may already have started for some schools.
Krishna Janamashtami
Independence Day, August 15
Id-ul –Fitre
Ganesh Chaturthi
Gandhi Jayanti, October 2
Dushera - schools generally closed for 2 weeks
Bakra Id (Id Ul Zuha)
Valmiki Jayanti
Diwali
Mohurrum
Guru Nanak Jayanti
Christmas, December 25 - schools generally close through January 1
Prepare your children to rely less on technology - computers, printers, iPads - and ask them to practice the art of writing with pencils and pen, in cursive style. Use of computers for research is strongly encouraged, though. Your children should learn to adopt the metric system - from the A4 paper they will use in school to doing math in meters, liters and kilograms. Textbooks and notebooks are expected to be bound in clean, brown wrapping paper with labels. The school bag is likely to be loaded with books - many more than are really needed for a day’s instruction. School uniforms are the norm - and this may be one of the biggest changes for a US raised public school student used to wearing the trendiest clothes and shoes.
Public safety is another area where Indian schools lag their American counterparts. While school gun violence is practically non-existent in India, other fundamental safety issues remain. School buses are not regulated so that each school offers its own version of transportation to ferry children to and from school. State laws requiring traffic to stop when school buses stop don’t exist, and even if they do exist, are largely ignored. It is a miracle that more children don’t get hurt trying to cross the street getting on or off their bus. Speed limits on school access roads are rarely posted, and even if posted, these are not policed.
And finally, get your children to embrace the reality of space - or rather lack of it. Everything is likely to be much smaller than what they are used to. The school compound - yes, most schools have walls built around them - is likely to go all the way up to the street. Schools are not set back deep with an impressive driveway leading to the front door as is the case with US public schools. School playgrounds are likely to be much smaller. Classrooms, libraries, cafeterias and auditoria (if schools even have them) will feel much smaller not only because they are physically so but also because there are likely to be many more children per square meter than the average US public school.
Despite all of these seeming disadvantages, the fact remains that children raised in the West adapt amazingly well to Indian conditions. The key is for them to make friends. Indian schools naturally promote unpretentiousness, so a child can be someone who he or she is without the pressure of having to act like someone he or she is not. These two reasons probably explain why children begin to develop deep emotional bonds with their school. In fact, when returning Indian families plan to move to a different home in the same city after a few years, stories abound of children willing to endure long commutes to their original school rather than move to a new school.
Go back to Education
Section 7h. Transitioning your kids to Indian schools
It is an unfortunate fact of life that children transitioning to Indian schools from the west, especially the US and Canada, have to sacrifice their entire summer holidays during the relocation year. This is because of the way the school calendars conflict in both countries.
A typical school year in India starts around June 1 and goes through March 31 with two months off - in April and May - for summer. The US school year typically starts mid-August and runs through the the first week of June. Children who choose to complete their school year in the US will therefore have to start their new term in India almost immediately, with little or no break at all.
This is why choosing your India neighborhood which has a large number of potential friends for your children is crucial. The first 4 - 6 weeks of a typical Indian school year are relatively slow and these give your kids a chance to make new friends.
One other selling point that you can make to your children is that the Indian school year, while admittedly longer than in the US, is replete with holidays. Here’s a good list. Note that all holidays may not involve days off from school and not all holidays are celebrated in all regions.
New Years Day, January 1
Republic Day, January 26
Basant Panchmi
Barawafat
Mahashivratri
Holi Holidays
Ram Navmi
Mahaveer Jayanti
Good Friday - summer vacation, 2 months, may already have started for some schools.
Krishna Janamashtami
Independence Day, August 15
Id-ul –Fitre
Ganesh Chaturthi
Gandhi Jayanti, October 2
Dushera - schools generally closed for 2 weeks
Bakra Id (Id Ul Zuha)
Valmiki Jayanti
Diwali
Mohurrum
Guru Nanak Jayanti
Christmas, December 25 - schools generally close through January 1
Prepare your children to rely less on technology - computers, printers, iPads - and ask them to practice the art of writing with pencils and pen, in cursive style. Use of computers for research is strongly encouraged, though. Your children should learn to adopt the metric system - from the A4 paper they will use in school to doing math in meters, liters and kilograms. Textbooks and notebooks are expected to be bound in clean, brown wrapping paper with labels. The school bag is likely to be loaded with books - many more than are really needed for a day’s instruction. School uniforms are the norm - and this may be one of the biggest changes for a US raised public school student used to wearing the trendiest clothes and shoes.
Public safety is another area where Indian schools lag their American counterparts. While school gun violence is practically non-existent in India, other fundamental safety issues remain. School buses are not regulated so that each school offers its own version of transportation to ferry children to and from school. State laws requiring traffic to stop when school buses stop don’t exist, and even if they do exist, are largely ignored. It is a miracle that more children don’t get hurt trying to cross the street getting on or off their bus. Speed limits on school access roads are rarely posted, and even if posted, these are not policed.
And finally, get your children to embrace the reality of space - or rather lack of it. Everything is likely to be much smaller than what they are used to. The school compound - yes, most schools have walls built around them - is likely to go all the way up to the street. Schools are not set back deep with an impressive driveway leading to the front door as is the case with US public schools. School playgrounds are likely to be much smaller. Classrooms, libraries, cafeterias and auditoria (if schools even have them) will feel much smaller not only because they are physically so but also because there are likely to be many more children per square meter than the average US public school.
Despite all of these seeming disadvantages, the fact remains that children raised in the West adapt amazingly well to Indian conditions. The key is for them to make friends. Indian schools naturally promote unpretentiousness, so a child can be someone who he or she is without the pressure of having to act like someone he or she is not. These two reasons probably explain why children begin to develop deep emotional bonds with their school. In fact, when returning Indian families plan to move to a different home in the same city after a few years, stories abound of children willing to endure long commutes to their original school rather than move to a new school.
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