The Indian Public School – Perungudi – Review

Hello All,

It’s that time of the year the school admission process got kicked off in almost all the schools in the city, few began the process in last year and almost completed it, but most of them begin their process from Jan 2020 for the upcoming academic year June 2020 to Mar 2021. Most of the schools have now a days opted for online application mode, where we could apply from home and wait for the interview call, rather than standing in long queues to get an application form by paying fee. (Though few schools still does this traditional and painful (for parents) process). It is even more challenging if you are finding a school for children with special needs. Even though there is statutory obligation not to discriminate such children based on the intelligence or ability/disability, the reality is that most of the educational institutions play around on the technicality or disregard the legal obligation completely. The demand for inclusive schools is so much at present and it is expected to grow further in coming years, but the number of schools that is going to accommodate such kids have not increased. On the contrary many inclusive schools have stopped taking students with special needs. With such greater disparity between demand and supply, getting a school for your kid is purely a luck factor.

I would not be surprised if parents join hands together and form a school for their own children, the cost of it would be far more less than the ridiculous fees quoted by many schools in the city. At an average parents of special needs children are happy to pay an annual fee of 1.5 lacs for their child or more at many occasions. Imagine 100 parents joining a cash pool of 1.5 lacs each, we are looking at the possibility of proper school with funds to spare! (This is how weird my thinking is at times)

Now i would like to share about one such school which we visited for our Son’s admission, it is called The Indian Public School (Tips) located in Perungudi. We applied to them in online mode. We were not sure whether they are inclusive or not, so we decided to check it out in person. Their phone lines are an irritating part, we tried for many days on the 4 different contact numbers provided in the website, but all of it kept ringing no one ever lifted it. So finally went in person for inquiry, they were not welcoming to random walk in inquires on admission, one needs to get prior appointment to meet the Admission coordinator. Our query was a simple one, i.e. to know whether the school is inclusive or not, but still we had to get an appointment to get that clarified. When we arrived on the date of appointment at the given time, they have a process which every parent go through. We waited for 20 mins in the reception, later a staff takes you for the campus tour. From infrastructure perspective, one may not find much faults or drawbacks. All Classrooms from whatever we have seen were Air-conditioned, Projector equipped, storage cupboards for learning materials, two different swimming pools for primary and higher, Classical Dance room, western dance room, music room, auditorium, two food courts /canteens etc…

After which we met with admission coordinator, who mentioned that Perungudi branch takes up Children with Learning Disability only and not children with special needs. However, they have a branch in Saidapet, where a special wing is available for children with special needs. We could take an appointment there for an assessment of our child and decide further. Since our query got answered, we decided to leave the place, they have provided us with the school fee structure on the way out. So I can say that TIPS perungudi is not inclusive as per the definition of Inclusive education. However they consider it as Inclusive, as they accommodate children with manageable Learning Disabilities or typically slow learners.

I happened to attend the New Parent Orientation Session  organized by TIPS on 26th Jan 2020 to gain more insights on the International Baccalaureate (IB) Curriculum, as many international schools are now getting under this curriculum. Below are the information i learned about the IB curriculum offered by TIPS in general, i guess it should be the same in other international schools as well:

Managing Director Mr.Ashok Kumar presented an one man show presentation about the school and curriculum, he was very impressive with his communication and handled parents queries well, pitched for the school and defended the school’s actions tirelessly. Had a deep knowledge on the various other curriculum and seems to be updated with current affairs. He mentioned about his background, where he did engineering, worked abroad, earned well but he felt that he did not fit in, came back to India got trained in IB. He choose IB curriculum as he wanted lesser interference from the government. His son got graduated from his school.

CURRICULUM:

Tips follows multiple curriculum’s. IB (International Baccalaureate) is different from Cambridge. Below are the Curriculum that are followed by them for different grades:

• From early years to Grade 5 – IB Curriculum
• From Grade 6-8 – Cambridge Curriculum
• From 9-10 – Cambridge Curriculum – IGCSE
• Grade 11 &12 – IB Curriculum

Learning vs Teaching

IB curriculum is not about syllabus it is about pedagogy, you can use CBSE curriculum, British curriculum, Singapore curriculum it doesn’t matter. Pedagogy is the difference. There is a bigger difference in Teaching and Learning. IB focuses on Learning unlike national curriculum’s which does teaching. For example, if your kid came to you and asked you what a particular word meant, you would explain the meaning of it, again the kid might ask you the meaning of the word after few days, you would again explain it, in this scenario we are teaching the kid what that particular word means. In the same scenario, instead of giving the meaning to the kid right away, if you expose the kid to the world of dictionary and ask him to search for the word and find out the meaning by himself, and the kid finds out the meaning himself, this is learning. The learning outcome is greater. When you did your own learning, it cannot be forgotten. In a national curriculum, there is a textbook which is the only thing being taught, so the learning outcome is restricted to what is there in the textbook.

Differences from other Streams:

IB pedagogy facilitates the skill set learning, because contents become obsolete very fast, you will always hit brick walls. In International curriculum they do teach higher principles or concepts, their curriculum is at par with CBSE, ICSE, Sama Cheer, State board, IGCSE. The foundations and principles are the same. Implementation and marketing has contributed to different perceptions and not the course content or curriculum. He also mentioned that there exists a 5% differences between all of the curriculum’s, from the actual content.

Importance of Self Discipline:

Everybody is interested in what happens till getting their kid in to college and does not focus beyond that. The pass percentage of Engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu for past 5 years is 40% ! In national curriculum what happens is that, you were Led in to the textbook based curriculum, you were told exactly what needs to be done, you gave them notes, you have given them text books, you have given them past question papers, parental pressure is there, teacher pressure is there, extra classes, tuition’s are there , PTM s are there and so on, where the student is monitored which kept him focused till such time. Suddenly when they go to college stream, you feel like you don’t have a kid. Has any parent checked on their performance, are there PTMs done? Suddenly all support systems vanished. In college, there is no text book, professor doesn’t care whether you come to class or not, at the most they will be given references in library, then there is syllabus  based on which paper is set, when you see it in question paper, you are blank, dome one does your evaluation and finally results turned to be a failure. In an environment where you are always Led, self initiation, self discipline will be lacking in some children. Only the self focused, self determined, self disciplined kids will be successful when they go to college. This is what being offered in IB program right from the primary care program.

Why IGCSE at Grade 9 and 10?

Tips is offering IGCSE for Grade 9 and 10, due to the importance of 10th Standard Certificate in Indian Context, as it is a valid document for Date of Proof for availing various public sector and private sector services. To cater the needs of that, for Grade 10, the students are certified based on IGCSE which is similar to your SSLC or CBSE 10th Standard. This also helps students who want to pursue college education in India. Its a misnomer that kids studying at International schools always travel abroad for higher studies. Of 500+ alumini students who have passed out 50% of them are pursuing their studies in India itself. If you are an NRI student staying temporarily in India and would eventually travel back to their own country to pursue college education, they don’t need to go for the 10th certification offered by IGCSE, they can continue in the IB curriculum itself and avail pre IB program.

Grade 11 and 12:

At present they are only offering IB diploma, even though they are authorized to provide A and AS level as per IGCSE, they are not doing that. They have plans to offer CBSE is near future, time-frame cannot be committed at present. The difference between A/AS Level and IB is the research component which you have in IB Diploma, whereas IGCSE is more application oriented, one can predict questions like CBSE etc. but the same is not possible in IB Diploma.

Text Books / Study Materials:

Up to Grade 5 there are no textbooks, there will be printed workbooks from Grade 6 Students are issued Laptops with soft copies of reference materials. From Grade 9 and above, there will be revision guides, past papers. Curriculum wise we don’t use a particular textbook, but we choose the best methodology for teaching.

For example, if you take English, we use Wright’s approach for Grammar, Readers theater is a tool to teach drama, clusters is the tool to teach vocabulary, nelsons way is followed for handwriting, Wright’s is an assessment tool for grammar.

Research – IB Diploma:

Research is more of a hands-on learning. Right from primary years, they have something called PBL i.e. Project Based Learning.  Research refers to proving existing results and not looking for a new theory. They are expected to conduct experiments, collect results, apply law and principles and prove it and this is done for every subject. That is what the component that is judged in the exam, it cannot be copied from anywhere and all researches will go for plagiarism checkup, which will reject it there is a cut paste stuff going on there. You can find the different programs they offer in the link http://tipschennai.com/academics/

ADMISSION:

They claim that kids are not judged and does not get denied admission based on academic performance of a child. They do perform assessment which is to find the child’s current capability and match to them to appropriate levels which would help the teacher to make the transition into the curriculum in a right manner. Also, one doesn’t have to wait till they finish their academic year in order to join an IB curriculum. Earlier the better, so the transition can be smooth. Don’t wait due to the reason that your current school may not give TC (Transfer Certificate) etc. TC is being an instrument that is being used for threatening now a days, but it is not actually required, a TC merely states that “there is a continuance of learning” and it is not required for the school. Transcripts or progress reports mentioning that child has learned up to a certain level is enough for us.

ACADEMIC YEAR:

a) The school academic year from Kindergarten to 8th Standard is June XX to April XX. Your 6th, 7th and 8th standard is basically 2.5 years and not 3 years.

b) From 9th standard the academic year starts in January i.e. 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th it is from Jan to Dec calendar year.

c) The logic behind having a different academic year for 9-12 Grade is that, a Grade 12 student will appear for his final examination in OCT-NOV, post which he is having a free time where he could prepare for entrance examinations for courses of his choice. This gives him an added advantage as students from other curriculum’s would have not written their final examinations by that time. He gave an example on Neet where 60% of the students who qualified were appeared for the second time. Most students appear for Neet immediately after completing their 12th without preparation, they fail and they prepare for their second attempt for an entire year and clear it in their second attempt, what is happening here is they kind of doing 12+1 years of education. This theory proves that, if you have more time for your entrance exam preparation, you would have a better chance of clearing it in first attempt which is an advantage of following calendar year as academic year during 9th to 12th std in IB. They do not provide integrated coaching during the academic period, as the IB curriculum is hectic during 11th and 12th.

ASSESSMENT

There may be a misconception that international education means there is no assessment etc. it is all wrong/false, we have enough tests, how we assess the kid, how we interpret the results and present to you is different. Assessment as a process happens at all levels beginning from Kindergarten, which are at school level. The first board level assessment that happens for the child will be at 10th Standard only. There is a Checkpoint assessment which is optional can be taken by the students that is offered by Cambridge, which is taken during Grade 8th, it is not mandatory.

IB exams are offered two times a year and Cambridge exams are offered 3 times a year. In US, the calendar year is different, if we are to follow the same year then the college admissions would be frozen before your 12th results are published. In US they would issue predictors score, which is accepted there, but not in India. For May exams the results come in July and for Nov exams the results come in Jan.

Equivalency certificate is also issued to students. Like CBSE scores one will receive a certificate with grades and also another certificate with Marks. IB has a point system way of scoring. For IB and IGCSE the valuations is done by the board. Once the exams are over, we pack up the papers, seal it, sent it out to the board, board will have examiners all around the world, it will be sent to two examiners, every paper is corrected twice, they compile the results and it comes back. There are no online exams anywhere, it’s all written exams

TRANSITION TO IB 

Till Grade 3 or 4 the differences are very minimal, there will be no issues in the transition. Beyond 4th and 5th the transition time gets longer but it is not due to subjects, it is the way in which the subject is taught. Any grade/curriculum you come from, it is the culture of the school that matters, lot of state board schools encourage this type of learning, students from such schools will not have issues in transition. It is not the board; it is the culture from which the child comes.

TEACHERS

They have teachers who have chosen the profession due to passion and have teachers who picked up the profession as they are left with no other choice. However, they look for qualities in teachers who is capable to listen to 20+ speak for 8 hours on a daily basis, their ability to communicate, basic graduation degree for primary years, and master’s level at middle school level. Everything teachers do is documented and put on a portal and is available for parents. Apart from that there is a team who does the evaluation of students to see if the teacher is doing what is expected or not, there are student surveys, they are floating teachers available if a particular teacher needs to be replaced, to ensure there is accountability.

They have begun a worldwide teachers academy recently, similar to what Infosys does in Mysore campus, where they take academically qualified teachers and make them ready to meet the school needs i.e. developing their own staff.

INFRASTRUCTURE

In Chennai they have 4 campuses,

• Perungudi ( Has KG to 12)
• Saidapet (Only KG and Special School)
• Ambattur (from KG to 8th Grade)
• Oragadam (Sporting facility)

FOOD

School has a policy of Compulsory breakfast to be availed from school. The logic being, the kids begin for school around 7 am which is very early and most of the time kids would rush to their meals, as a result they would throw up in the bus. Children should have a calm sit out for 15 mins, have a nice breakfast, chat with their friends, mind is fresh, get into a different mood and walks to class. Dietary requirements are considered while offering the meal. They respect the food preference choices by parents, as they have different kitchens for Vegetarian and Non vegetarian food. There is a 3-week menu that gets repeated, which is a mix of South, North and Chinese.

NON ACADEMICS

Till Grade 5, it is compulsory for all students to take part in Sports, Music, Dance and drama activities.

There are leadership training which is optional, where they partner with group called NALS who is ex-military leadership training they have camp in Nilgiris, it is done every year, where they are given challenges that are impossible to do, and how to get over their fears. There offer international trips, which are not mandatory. Also students take part in expeditions, they have done successful Himalayan expeditions in the past with students. Field trips are arranged across different grades.

SAFETY and SECURITY

Campus is secured with CCTV Surveillance, there is a monitoring station which looks at the feed and acts accordingly. Every one enters the campus are verified for their identity. Schools are tied up with Apollo shine program, there are stand by doctors and nurses available inside the campus all the time. There is an Ambulance available in every campus. All students medical records are synced with Apollo database, hence in case of any emergency there is no waiting for patients history. There are speed monitors in school bus, drivers are advised once a month for rash driving, seat belts are available to be worn by students.

FEE STRUCTURE

I am sharing the Fee structure related to KG and Grade 1-5 alone:

A) Fixed Component for ALL:

• One-time Registration Fee = 75,000
• Refundable Security Deposit = 25,000
• Mandatory Breakfast = 4200 X 3 = 12,600

B) Pre KG to KG 2:

• Term Fees = 45000 X 3 = 1,35,000
• Annual Material Fees = 9,500
• Uniform Fees:
• Pre KG and KG1 = 10,000
• KG2 = 11500

C) Grade 1-5:

• Term Fees = 57,500 X 3 = 1,72,500
• Annual Material Fees = 12,500
• Uniform Fees: 13,000

D) Other optional fees include:

• Lunch = 8500 X 3 = 25,500
• School Bus = 11500 X 3 = 34,500
• Field Trip Fees = 850 X 3 = 2,550
• Event fees as per participation = 1500 to 3500 per event.

So for Pre Kg, one would pay 75,000 + 25,000 + 12,600 + 1,35,000 + 9,500 + 10,000 = 2,67,100, subsequently the one time registration fee and refundable security deposit need not be paid every year, so the higher fee is due to the donation component in the year you join the kid.

Similarly, for Grade 1 one would pay 75,000 + 25,000 + 12,600 + 1,72,500 + 9,500 + 13,000 + 12,500 = 3,07,500, which is at par with most of the International schools that offer IB curriculum or otherwise.

My Personal Feedback:

From the curriculum perspective, it is something which every parent would like to have for their student, a self-disciplined individual. From infrastructure perspective, probably they are in top 5 considering other facilities in Chennai offering similar education. From fees perspective, as they are following IB curriculum and following international way of teaching, it is higher.

As a middle-class family parent, I would say this school caters the need of the elite community, which I would personally feel intimidated from and never want my kids to be anywhere near, which is my typical middle class mentality. Indian way of teaching has seen greater success in the past, which has given us an edge over foreign nationals in many aspects. All the great minds who must have made TIPS possible in India must have come from such education background only. But the traditional curriculum be it CBSE/State Board have become a burden to teachers, school, students and parents, they are unable to deliver what they have designed, which is total failure of the system itself. Having said that, the reason why I went for an inquiry is purely because there are very limited schools in the city that offer inclusive education. The difference in fees between the worst possible inclusive school and better inclusive school is becoming thin year by year, so if the incremental cost is not an issue, parents can opt for it. I would only consider this school, if they are able to cater to the needs of children with special needs in the Perungudi campus. If we are going to copy International way of teaching, we should copy all the aspects, and not restrict it to the fee structure, extra curricular activities and infrastructure facilities. IB is new in Indian context, it is better to have such schools as kids who does not fit in to traditional model can highly benefit from it. From parents perspective more options is always better.

You can check the below videos where we posted the aspects that needs to be considered while searching schools for kids with special needs in Tamil.

 

Regards,

Saranya and Karthikeyan

karthiksaranyaparents@gmail.com