Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Shifting gears (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifting-gears/)

-   -   The School & College Admissions Thread (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifting-gears/71698-school-college-admissions-thread-69.html)

Hi All,

Are you aware of any ICSE/CBSE schools which give the option to choose French as a second language (instead of Hindi) in northern Bangalore (nearby Hebbal, Hennur etc.) ? From primary class onwards.

A related question: is Hindi a compulsory subject in CBSE schools from class 1?

Thanks

Please check out Mallya Aditi International School in Yelahanka. I finished there almost 20 years ago and it was a fantastic school. French was offered as a secondary language if you wanted.

Fees may be high and availability may be another factor, but can definitely recommend them. I just did my 11th + 12th there, but enjoyed every moment of it.

Hindi isnt, but in Bangalore Kannada is. Can chose Hindi/French as the third language.

Just to inform all interested in college information that:

St. Joseph's Institute of Management (SJIM) Bangalore :

Admissions to PGDM (equivalent of MBA) opened.

www.sjim.edu.in

Thanks

Does anyone has any feedback or experience with online schools like 21kschool.com? https://www.21kschool.com/

As business is growing and I am not able to give enough time to Family, I have decided to shift with family to my work place at Vapi, GJ (150 km north of Mumbai).
My elder son is currently studying in 1st grade at an IGCSE school in Mumbai. He will be promoted to grade 2 in June.


The new place has one IGCSE school but students are very less, to be precise only 1 in grade 2 (in Gujarat schools start from April, May is vacation and again in June schools resume). Having only 1 kid in grade 2 is a big NO for me as my son will not be having any school friends from same class. So I have decided to go for either ICSE or CBSE board. There are many CBSE schools in Vapi including DPS, Podar, Ryan international etc., DPS being the brand new school.

For ICSE again there is only 1 school but luckily the school has 3 divisions for grade 2 with 35 kids in each division. All schools are ready to give admission but the confusion is in selecting the board. I was going through the curriculum of CBSE and found that there is no Science subject till grade 3 and even in grade 3 there will be EVS and after seeing the content of EVS I realized that my son as already studied 90% of it in grade 1 itself. How is the syllabus of ICSE?

Is it even going to matter whether he learns in grade 1 or 3. Also I have heard CBSE more theoretical where as ICSE is application based. Am I missing out something?

CBSE is quite easy in terms of syllabus. This is the hierarchy in terms of "content".

1. ICSE
2. IGCSE / IB
3. CBSE
4. State Board

ICSE is way too much , CBSE / State Board are too light (almost no science in class 10th for example).

In terms of application oriented v/s rote learning :

1. IGCSE / IB
2. ICSE
3. CSBE
4. State Board

For example, it is rare to see any question for definition in IGCSE, most questions are about applying the concept.

My daughter completed her 2nd standard from an ICSE school in Mumbai and we have now moved base to pune. Admission to standard 3 in pune is proving to be a challenge. Our top 4 target schools - Bishops Undri, St. Helena’s, St. Mary’s and Hutchins - have so far not confirmed a seat saying admission can only be given if there is a vacancy. And they will let us know of vacancy only by mid-June. The next best option that we could figure is Vibgyor Undri.
Parents from Pune - any advise if there’s anyway to secure admission in the top 4 schools I’ve listed above? Also, any convent or schools modelled on English public schools that we are missing out on?

Family stays in Hadapsar (closer to the Undri side) and our board preference is ICSE since our daughter is more language and arts oriented than STEM.

In addition to what Netfreak said about ease of syllabus, my thoughts:

- My preference is always to put my child in the best school irrespective of the board.
- If all schools are at par, I would lean towards the one which has more extra curricular activities
- If that too is at par, it would come down to your personal philosophy of how much free independent time you would be fine with for your child - ICSE is application oriented but also significantly consumes more time of a child as compared to CBSE.
- Another option is to try ICSE initially and move to CBSE if you/ your child don't like it. The reverse is slightly difficult in higher classes from 7th onwards.

But first choice if it is easy to determine, would always be:
Better School > > Best board

Exactly my point, there is nothing in between. But how will it be after XII, let's say my kid wants to go to abroad for undergraduate studies or he decides to study here in India? Will it be same for both ICSE and CBSE? I have also heard ICSE puts more emphasis on English compared to CBSE.
I studied in state board and I don't want my kid to just memorise everything and appear for the exam without understanding what he has memorised.
I guess CBSE is just memorising writing the exams, or is it?

But how to define better school?
Mumbai has very few CBSE schools and majority schools are ISCE and many are IGCSE, why? I don't know, may be CBSE is just too easy? Someone with better understanding on this matter can enlighten me.

Whereas the place where I am planning to shift has all CBSE schools with only 1 being ICSE board. Most of the schools are big, BUILT in 3-4 acres of land. The ICSE school has some additional activities like Karate, skating, astronomy lab, Rifle shooting along with other common sports/activities like basketball, football, Yoga, Badminton, Music which other schools also offer.

None of the schools have Air Conditioners in classrooms which the current Mumbai school has. Newer schools (like DPS have new type classrooms). But that is not what you want, the primary objective is education. I have asked many people here and they say XYZ school is best, why? Because either their kids are studying there or it is near to their home/market.

I have a week or so to decide and as I said in my earlier post all schools are ready to give admission to my son (even after knowing he will miss out one month of school). So, I have to decide which board and then the school.

This thread though called School and College, discussions are mostly related to Schools.

Let me break that bias and re-introduce the college part :)

My son has just completed his 12th (Cambridge) and awaiting results. He is keen on doing BBA and then doing a PG abroad on a business specialization (Not MBA). Having lived his entire life in Chennai, he wants to study staying at a hostel for his graduation and is looking at colleges in Bangalore.

He has secured an admission for BMS (Bachelor of Management Studies) with Jain university. Does anyone know how the university is ? I am trying to scout for any FB groups which mentions about the same as well.

We are looking at a few more as well - Christ University / NMIMS Bangalore etc. Any suggestions would be of help.

In the past few days, I also did some research about schools for my 10 month old son. It is probably too early to decide a school for him but I just thought of doing some preliminary research so that the decision might become easier after a year or two.

I had a chat with one school representative and I was given some thumb rules about choosing the board. I do not agree with them but just highlighting it here:

a) If the child wants to do IIT JEE, then CBSE is the best board.
b) If you want all round development, then go for ICSE.
c) If you have the financial resources, go for IB / IGCSE.

If CBSE is easy in terms of syllabus, how does it help for IIT - JEE?

People tell me that IB / IGSE is all concept based learning i.e. more about application of concepts. I think this depends entirely on the teacher teaching the subject rather than the board. I find it extremely hard to judge quality of teachers at a particular school. I spoke to some parents in my building and all of them were fine with their current school choices. You can try watching some youtube videos on which boards to choose but I did not find them to be worthwhile.

I wish there was a forum like Team BHP for discussing schools.

Yes, ICSE puts more emphasis on pretty much any subject. Though, it is not a good thing for studying abroad; since student will not have time to build the "resume".

Commercials ... No new school can afford to spend on ground for playground. This among other things are requirements that schools can't fulfil for CBSE.

IGCSE is easiest to obtain, since this only requires to pay more to teachers (Requirements for teacher to student ratios and teacher training costs on attrition).

Overall, as One said; focus more on school and less on board. Try to get feedback and data; such as teacher student ratio ; reputation of teachers in secondary market (tuitions) ; teacher attrition etc. If school management is hands-on and selects good teachers, other things will fall in place.

While Jain has been around for many years, I don't know first hand how good/bad they are.
You may want to consider RV University (private university) - I think they started BBA courses last year or the year prior, have heard they're good. This one is at the RVCE campus on Mysore Road near Kengeri (metro station right outside the college gate).

The RV group also runs RVITM (affiliated to VTU) in JP Nagar 8th phase and you could check that out as well, but I don't have first hand information or details about courses offered there.

This is just a marketing spiel. This only matters in 11th and 12th. In 11th and 12th, everyone has to study NCERT books. This was the case in 1980s when I was preparing, same is the case today (I mentor students from weaker backgrounds).

JEE mains is based on NCERT. For example, look at interviews of JEE toppers for last 20 years and prep strategy. Common factors are :

1. Study NCERT books + Coaching materials + Packages + Hard books
2. Enrol in dummy schools that are associated with state boards

2021 topper as example :

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...w/86246086.cms

Board matters as well. For example; my son's Comp Science exam had questions like "You are storing movies in a database, what column will be Primary key". And not like "Define primary key in DB".


+1. It took lot of efforts to find teachers who can tutor for English in the way it is taught in IGCSE and IB.

But once you find such teachers; all of them seem to be only from a handful of schools.