Off to school!

Every parent knows how important schooling is today. Sometimes i wonder whether schooling is as important as the school itself. Loads of schools today claim to be 'International'. The meaning has been lost on many a educationalist. Does it mean an International environment implying students and teachers within are of foreign descent, does it imply an International syllabus has been adopted for better learning or does it simply mean that an International campus has been made available and the rest of the constituents are of locally origin. A prestigious school would be blessed with the option of all three and be strategically and geographically located to reap its maximum benefit.
Parents are falling prey to many such loosely coined school jargon and in the rush of the ultimate search they forget to question the school and its very principles. School coordinators are now the face of the institution. The power game is slowly shifting. Principles are left to oversee the smooth functioning of the school. Unlike in earlier times the principles were more in control of the day to day affairs. But with competition appearing at every corner of every street school coordinators, seem to be the face to any schools admission procedure.
How does a parent truly understand whether the school meets with his or her expectations and eventually promise to bring the best out of each and every child on campus. Some parents are open to change. Two schools in a childs lifetime are sometimes not enough. They believe a child can easily adjust to a new environment because they are not so rigid in their belief system and if a school fails to meet with their ever changing demands it is their prerogative to renew their search operations for a better school.
Selection of a school can be made on several grounds. Parents have a plethora of options today. Two or three international boards of education, sprawling campuses, smaller student to teacher ratio and increasing list of school activities. Thus making the choice even more difficult.
Parents have to believe they have the right to question. At one given time when education was almost divided into catholic versus non catholic the differences were apparent. Its clearly not the case today. Parents are left with spiraling fees in the wake of this new euphoria. Parents are forgetting that all of the above does not translate to higher grades. Its the litmus test. Its the icing on the cake. Year on year results will eventually separate the men from the boys and in this case the best schools from the ones claiming to be. Schools have to deliver the grades.
That is the most important deliverable at this moment.