My Return to India (R2I) story > R2I Chapter 6.1
While the school-year in Greensboro had just ended, the school-year in Bangalore had already started by mid-May. Vijay was happy with the move thus far and was enjoying the quality time spent with grandparents and relatives, but after a couple of weeks, he began play-acting ‘back to school’ as he saw kids in the neighborhood head out for school.
Suja and I began researching school options, especially focused on the ones in 5-8 kilometer radius of where we lived. We realized that it would be futile to put Vijay through a commute of over ½ hour to get to school. Vijay was bound to face a tremendous culture shock and we didn’t want to add the stress of hour long commute to his early schooling experience.
Urban India offers a wide choice of schooling options catering to every pocket and preference. The state and central governments run a wide network of schools around the country, but most middle-class parents opt for private school and coaching in addition to schooling. Most parents realize that education is the ticket to a better life for the middle class.
Private schools range from small ones run out of nondescript buildings in residential neighborhoods to high-profile schools with state-of-art amenities, small class sizes and personalized attention. Most metro cities boast of a handful of these elite schools that charge large sums in fees, donations and incidentals.
One of the most common questions on social media forums is as follows:
Will Indian parents have to pay NRI Fees for schooling in India, if their child is born in the US?
Private Schools generally have a complex fee structure that could include items like
- Admission (donation and other fees)
- Initial fees (books, fee etc)
- Annual fee
- Tuition (monthly/quarterly)
- Special fee for sports and other activities
- Transportation fee etc. etc
The fees at private schools are not set by the government authorities and are managed by the schools themselves, and can range from a few thousand rupees a month to tens of thousands. In addition, schools are known to set arbitrary fees and donations dictated by the internal guidelines set by the management. It is also customary for schools to charge a large sum of amount as ‘donation’ or ‘administration fee’ at the time of admission. Such a donation can range from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of rupees.
The recent years have also seen the mushrooming of “international” schools that cater to the mobile-techie class that wants minimal disruption for their kids as they continue globe-trotting. These schools may offer a Montessori or IB curriculum with an exposure to a few international languages. Some of these elite-schools cater to international expatriates, Diplomats and others, and charge equivalent of the fee in Dollars. For example, the American School in Delhi charges $24,200/Yr for Grades 1–5.
Most schools don’t care about student’s citizenship but rather on the parent’s ability to pay the donation and fees.
Schools in India don’t generally care much about a student’s foreign citizenship status, though they will require documentation on residence (like an Aadhaar) along with transfer transcripts (certificates) from a previous school. The parent’s ability to pay will also determine the school donation and incidental fees. However, for other practical purposes after admission, the students’ citizenship shouldn’t determine the fees, which would be on par with locals.
Admission – pounding the pavement
Many schools in Urban India have gone digital in the past few years and host their own website or at least a facebok page. However, most schools have not digitized the admission process. They still expect parents to pound the pavement – to come in and collect the application form after meeting the administrators or principals.
This is purely demand-and-supply economics at work. Hundreds of parents may aspire to get their child admitted at a school where they may have only a few dozen seats vacant. The number of seats per class, per section is regulated by state board and the school management has a lot of leeway on who gets in.
Once a child gets into the kindergarten or first standard, parents rarely think of getting their child out till they graduate from the 10th or 12th. There are exceptions like a job transfer or other family reasons, but the number of such parents or kids moving out is extremely small. Mid-term or mid-year admission is especially difficult because of such lower mobility and school administrators are extremely selective in admitting kids’ mid-year. Not surprisingly, they expect parents to come with a ‘recommendation’ or meet in person to make their case.
During my rushed visit to Bangalore in February, I tried to inquire about schools and admissions but couldn’t spend much time going around to visit the schools. While planning our return back to India, we tried calling and emailing the schools, but we received almost no response. The few times when we reached the school’s reception number, we were told to come by in person. Now that we were here, we could drive down to a few schools we had shortlisted.
The routine during the next couple of weeks was simple – we would drive down to the chosen school and Raju would wait in the car outside the school gate. Suja and I would tell the security guard that we had an appointment with the principal and walk in. At the reception, we would be directed to the administrator or the principal’s secretary and we would explain our predicament. In many cases, the administrator explained that mid-year admissions, especially for kids joining after the 1st standard was really difficult and promised to add us to the ‘waiting list.’ We could expect a call if a kid transferred out.
The few times we met the principals at some schools who also said they sympathized with our predicament but their hands were tied behind their back. School boards dictated the number students allowed per section and they were already at full capacity.
After a few such rounds during the week, we met the administrator and principal at a rather established and popular school in Malleshwaram that followed the ICSC curriculum. The principal had a similar refrain we had heard at other schools but gave a bit of a hope – one of the kids in 2nd standard was planning transfer out, and if that came through they could admit Vijay. She asked us to meet the administrator again, who explained the fee structure and ‘one time administration fee’ we had to pay. The administration fee was to be deposited in cash if the admission were confirmed and we would get a receipt from the school trust for that donation.
A couple of days later, we got a call back from the administrator and said we could come by and make the fee payment. We were elated and rushed back to complete the administration paperwork and collected details of Vijay’s class, uniform, books etc.
Later that evening we took Vijay shopping for his School uniform, tie and accessories. Like most schools, this one had a designated retailer that stocked the required uniform. Public schools in the US don’t prescribe a uniform and this was a novel experience for Vijay.
We didn’t live in the zone serviced by the school bus and didn’t prefer to send him in a private minivan with a dozen other kids, hence Suja or I would take turns dropping and picking him up from school in our chauffeured Maruti.
During the first PTA with the teachers after Vijay started school, Suja and I met his teachers and explained the change he was undergoing, and they were extremely supportive. While Suja and I had a bit of trepidation about Vijay adjusting in the new school, he surprised us by taking to it like a duck to water.
The structure of learning and curriculum was new to Vijay. The primary change was the need to learn two new languages as 2nd and 3rd languages. He took Hindi as the second language which Suja and I were comfortable in. Kannada, the state’s language was his third language. Having lived in Bangalore in the past, I was comfortable conversing in the language though I hadn’t learnt to read or write Kannada. We sought the help of a neighbor who began tutoring Vijay in Kannada.
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