My college friend, who is presently staying in the US, has sent me some beautiful and heartwarming snaps of her kid’s graduation day. The point is her son is only 4 years old and he has finished his play school! He was taken to a picnic from the school and given few certificates along with some child friendly goodies that are sure to remain as a memento of the rollicking time he had in his school. The beautiful photographs really made me envious, and suddenly I have myself comparing the schooling system which we follow here in India. No, I am not being judgmental, trying to point out which system of education is good and which system is bad. It’s only that I feel even though our education system is totally different, we can at least pay heed to the demands of a toddler at the playschool and not try to force him or her to follow a set routine which is the trend in most schools in India.

Despite the fact that the pattern is changing, still most play homes and preparatory schools here are very conventional, with emphasis being given primarily to bookish knowledge. The information meted out to them is not principally for their enjoyment, but rather as something which they need to know in order to get admission in a reputed school at a later stage. This is the scenario with most playschools in urban India, where the popularity of a play home depends more on the ‘connection’ and a below the table arrangement with some famous schools in the vicinity.

I said urban India, because I think this concept of sending a child to a Montessori school or a play home is still very nascent in rural India; where providing good education to a child is a big deal by itself! In fact, even few years back there was not so much hype in India regarding playschools. It is in the last few years that this inclination of sending an infant to a playschool has proliferated by alarming proportions. Even if the child feels threatened by a totally new atmosphere at a very tender age, we, as parents, force them to go and behave in exactly the same way as 20 other children are behaving. There is no nurturing of personal talents, with teachers trying to spoon feed them with the same set of nursery rhymes and coloring books…which again will help them conform to the set pattern of a regular school later. This obsession with academics is reaching such alarming proportions that instead of school being a place that every small kid should look forward to, it’s becoming a den of sorts.

In the West, fortunately, this pressure is not there at all for kids who are starting school. The sole objective is to provide fun and happiness to the child, where knowledge is imparted not with the objective of being a stepping stone for admission in Primary schools. I don’t know if this is my call only or do you also feel the same way?