School, Home Away From Home

Boarding schools has been an age old concept, ever since the Aryan Age in the form of Gurukula system, where the Guru and his shishya’s would reside in the same boundary. Residential schools are the new generation Gurukula’s catering to developmental needs of the Gen-X kids. Gone are those days, when parents would scare their children of sending them to residential school, for bad behavior, or poor academic performance. These days, kids are happy being sent away to these schools, as they are aware of the exposure they would receive there as compared to the normal day schools.

Boarding schools in India were earlier run by the missionary associations and had strict rules and codes of conduct to be followed. Students were made to live a life devoid of fun, entertainment and good food. But the trends have changed and these days the boarding schools provide value based education imparted to them in a relatively stress free environment, which enables the students to discover their inner talents and flourish them to the fullest potential. Residential schools help to broaden the vision and enlighten the way to the future of a child by the totality of discipline, which is called Education.

Residential schools not only look into the academic well-being or co-curricular advancement of its boarders but also grooming and other soft-skills that enhance the persona of each and every kid. Each student who is a part of a boarding school develops an emotional bonding with the fellow boarders, thus leading to strengthening not only intellectual growth per say, but also helps them to grow socially. Students learn to become independent, as they have to cope up with their daily chores of life all by themselves, which otherwise was done by their mothers at home. Children at boarding school benefit from small classes and heightened interaction between students and their teachers.

Residential schools do have a positive impact on children, however, there have been instances of negative impacts, where children become rebellious and start picturing their parents as the villains of their lives. Like everything has a good and bad attribute to them, similarly, residential schools also have their strengths and weaknesses. Indian residential schools are coming up with innovations to keep up with the challenges of this changing and competitive world, catering to the needs of both parents and their children in building a better future for tomorrow’s India.