Parents looking for more in schools-- ideology, track record-

Updated on: Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Though distance and fee structure still matter, a school's track record and ideology are the two other major factors that attract parents the most while making a choice for their children's nursery admission in Delhi, a new survey has found.

The online survey conducted by popular parents' community forum 'admissionsnursery.com' found that nearly 21 per cent of parents would choose a school for their wards' admission if it is located near their home.

While nearly 18 per cent said they would choose a school if its fee structure falls into their budget, nearly 17 per cent voted for the institution's proven track record as a key criteria for them to choose it, found the survey in which nearly 2,000 parents participated.

School's ideology holistic or academics came fourth with 16.04 per cent of parents saying they would select a school based on the approach of eduction it provides, indicating a "paradigm shift" in parents' assessment of a school.

There are a number of schools in Delhi and NCR which now offer an "holistic approach to learning" which they claim focuses on empowering students to make decisions, to find creative solutions and plan effective action strategies.

For instance, many schools provide lessons in horse riding, swimming, trekking, while many others focus on extra curricular activities like dancing, singing, acting etc.

"In the past four to five years, we have seen there is a paradigm shift in parents' assessment of a school. Though fee structure and distance still matters for them, most parents now look for the holistic and track record of a school before choosing it," said Sumit Vohra, the founder of the website that conducted the survey.

Among the other factors that parents see before choosing a school included student-teacher ratio, infrastructure, curriculum, day boarding and transport facility.

There are about 4,500 schools in Delhi and NCR, of them over 2,000 are unaided private schools which have been the first preference of parents for their children's admission.

Parents looking for more in schools-- ideology, track record-

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