Schools in Sonipat how good on soft attributes

A colleague narrated the recent experiences he had while looking for a good school for his daughters

All parents wish a better future for their kids. Good education being the foundation of better future, thousands of parents prepare themselves for yet another examination of life, more so in Delhi, when they go out to look for a good school for their kids.

How about the quality of schools in cities adjacent to Delhi such as Sonepat which boasts of being a sort of education hub on account of numerous schools and higher education institutions operating from here? Sonepat has a large number of schools but the best school depends on the quality of education it offers along with infrastructure and environment, which brings out the best in the child. One can search for online links on Quora or otherwise to get a good idea on the schools available in the city. But more information about schools may be required to make a choice for your kid and her future. Options being available, parents generally don't face challenges to get admission in good schools here as they do face in Delhi.

Besides the quality of infrastructure and brand value of schools, few soft attributes such as automation, transparency, and smoothness of admission process itself, and the attitude and behaviour of staff need to be carefully considered while selecting a school. To reflect more on this aspect, a colleague narrated the recent experience he had while looking for a good school for his daughters.

XYZ, a costly private school in Sonepat, welcomes you with a banner advertisement on 'Admissions Open for 2019-20' as soon as you open its website. The home page flashes out an inquiry form for parents to get more information about the school. However, you never get a detailed response from the school on the admission process after submitting online inquiry except an auto-generated message thanking you for your interest in the school with an assurance that someone from their team will very soon get in touch with you.

Waiting for their call or e-mail is futile as they expect you to visit the school physically to buy a prospectus. The same can be done by you on one fine day. They become super active as soon as you buy the prospectus. You might have not yet read their prospectus properly, understood the quality of education imparted by this school, weighed out other options available in the city for the schooling of your kids, they will call you to fix up an appointment for interaction with you.

As you are yet to apply to the school for an interaction session or admission, you will get the impression that the school is calling you to let you know more about the institution, infrastructure available in the school, the quality of education imparted by them, and the procedure to be followed for admission.

But your impression is wrong. First, admission desk will ask you for the filled in form as soon as you land in the school and if you have not brought it, she will lecture you in front of your kid on how it is understood that the filled in form is required. You will try to explain that you wish to know the school better first and then make a decision to admit your kid, but she will interrupt you with a similar lecturing tone. This much scene will be enough to upset your kid who is accompanying you on your advice because you wished to judge how much comfort your kid will feel while interacting with the staff of this school.

The process of so-called interaction doesn't stop here. You will be accepted for the interaction session with the condition that you can submit the filled in form later. Admission desk will dispatch you to another room where a teaching staff will come and start interviewing your kid using half-baked English words. You will try to explain that your kid is more comfortable talking in mother tongue Hindi but your explanation is weightless. Seeing all that is happening, you surrender and let her complete the process. Upon this interview session, the teaching staff will instruct you to go to the office of the principal. Upon entering the office of the principal, you are hardly settled in the chair, you will be again asked to submit the filled in form with a piece of advice that the school will decide on the admission of your kid only after that. In case your wife is also with you, the principle will seek your permission for interviewing her with questions such as what she has studied in her Master's degree course and where she used to live before her marriage.

It is still not over. You will be again asked to go to the admission desk. On reaching there, the admission desk will ask you to wait for a few minutes. After waiting for a while, you will be called and again told that you need to submit the filled in form. The desk will ask you when will you submit the filled in form. After going through the whole process and being completely baffled, you will simply utter "…may be tomorrow, will submit the form tomorrow".

Our colleague is still thinking whether to submit the filled in form to this school or explore more options. Of course, he wishes to have a small break and recollect himself before going through a similar process in any other school!