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| Bhupa (India) |
Jul 11, 2012 10:53 PM |
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Dear Satsheila,
Unfortunately, I couldn't read your article which has been removed (not sure why!!). However, I was able to see the comments below and get the context. Do you still have your kids studying at NAFL? I've not seen any updates from you lately and feel that either you've removed the kids from school or they are doing better now.
Even my experience as a parent hasn't been great either as I hear from my son and parents of his classmates that the punishment has been sort of physical. It seems that my son's teacher wrings the ears of her students and hits them on the back of their heads whenever the children do not behave or do their work. My son's ear was squeezed by the same teacher 5 times in one day last week. My son complained that the teacher has long nails; and I was able to see scratches with blood marks on the back of his ears. When I approached many of the parents, they acknowledged that this is happening to their kids too, however they don't have the courage to confront the teacher or principal for the fear of further ill-treatment of their kids. This seems ridiculous to me, but when I read your comments I feel that their fear is justified!! I've also heard from parents of children in other classes that many teachers are rude and don't have the calibre of international school teachers. This is also disturbing since all parents like me pay an enormous fees to get their kids educated in a conducive atmosphere. The teachers are also paid a lot of better than other private schools and it should be their duty to provide better service. I'm planning to approach the principal shortly regarding this.
Thanks |
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| Sumo (India) |
Feb 23, 2011 9:00 AM |
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Dear SatSheil,
I am really glad that things are improving at school wrt your daughter. I want to sincerely say that I am impressed by your handling the whole thing, by going to the root of the problem. I hope this becomes a wake up call for the school management who could have taken things for granted and not keeping a tab on ground realities. It is just unfortunate your children had to undergo these problems, and you had to be the whistle blower and take the brunt. I hope that things get better with your son too - I am positive it will happen.
Cheers
Sumo |
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| satsheila (United States) |
Feb 23, 2011 12:56 AM |
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Dear Sumo,
It's great to hear that you have a wonderful experience with NAFL and I hope you would continue to have it. However, as you have read from my article, you can only imagine what we, as parents have gone through! All the points written in the blog are 100% facts through personal experiences (including our kids).
We had met the chairman, Dr. Gopalakrishna back in December 2010 to express our concerns. He gave us his quality time which we deeply appreciate. After our PRODUCTIVE meeting with the chairman, there has been a significant (positve) change in my daughter's teacher, who has now been very supportive. Most of the issues that I have reported in regards to my daughter's teacher stand resolved. A major contributor for child's comfort level in class is the teacher. I've also seen a reasonable amount of change/improvement in one of the teachers with whom many kids had trouble. I wanted to give it sometime, say 60 days, so that the bruised ego of the teachers involved would heal after our meeting with the Chairman. It's more than 60 days and am yet to see a positive change in my son's class teacher's approach.
Coming to the comments you have posted, I would like to say a few words. The doctor had certified that my daughter had UTI and it was because of holding back for a long periods of time when she felt the urge to go to the bathroom. It was also a fact that the 55 pages of work she had not completed over a period of 3 months was given to her in one shot. As I've stated earlier, most of the issues with my daughter's teacher have been resolved. The sooner the treatment (more friendly, communicative, and softer approach by the teacher) changed, the better was my daughter's performance in class!
My son usually has subjects being taught in the last period. Per my son's experience and as other parents tell us, kids have homework that take a minimum of 1 1/2 to 2 hours on a daily basis. This can increase if there are projects and/or tests. In fact, the principal and chairman agreed that this duration for homework is normal.
It's nice to know that you have had good experiences in PTA meetings, however our experience is not unique. In fact, many other parents whom we know tell us that they too have had similar experiences like that of ours. I've also met a few very good teachers during the PTA meetings whom I've appreciated a lot and commended in person, but the very first one with the class teacher and subsequent ones are traumatising. As I've mentioned earlier, it probably triggered that behaviour after the incident
where my son fell sick one day in school, and I had to see the principal the next day. I've had the misfortune of taking non-stop rantings about my son's performance from 9 am - 1:45 pm in the month of July 2010 (barely 45 days into the school). Kids going from one school to another take so much time to adjust and you can imagine the adjustment issues of my son shifting from one country to another.
When I say that my experience at NAFL is not unique, many parents are willing to state their similar experiences too if they are ensured that their children will not suffer like mine for complaining about the teachers who harrass them.
About your 4th point, thank goodness they inform the parents when a child has major health issues/accidents in school. It was very unfortunate that my son fell sick, had 104.3 degree F, his parents were not informed, he was not given medicine or even water, and he had to lie in the sick room for more than 2 hours. Believe it or not, we didn't make it a big issue at all. We just asked the principal about what the school policy was in regards to treating the sick children. We told the principal that by going to her directly should not jeopardize my son's treatment in class. We didn't even want to carry this issue forward and didn't want to discuss at the 1st PTA meeting, but unfortunately, has become the mother of all problems!!
Regarding your 5th point, I had mentioned that there was an improvement after the first few instances about the handouts not being distributed. However, in some subjects, the handouts are not given to children and one copy is posted for common viewing. About the 6th point, it's good to know that your daughter is being well taken care of. We have sincerely tried to improve the situation by meeting the teacher and principal, but the teacher is unwilling to cooperate. We can go on and on, but this blog is not for personal vendetta nor is this intended to bring down the administrators of the school. This is only to express my experience so others can benefit from it. "Freedom of Expression" - Isn't this the greatness of democracy?
My child was SLAPPED hard on his cheeks and was thrusted to a corner (for responding to a friend's question while other kids were talking too at NAFL Day drama practice session). This is the ultimate crime even at a Government school! It's a SHAME that it happened at the so called International School for which I paid a premium fee! NO action has been taken so far against the perpetrator (teacher).
Believe me, even if I had a clue about this aspect of NAFL, I would have never put my children through this trauma. Life's big crisis can be solved with simple solutions such as having the courage and humility to accept our errors and adopt better ways. Here, because of a few individuals/teachers, the image of a great institution is diminishing. It's not hard for (willing) administrators to implement changes for the better.
Thank you for your wishes!
--Satsheila |
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| Sumo (India) |
Feb 21, 2011 1:17 PM |
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Dear SatSheila
You seem to have been in a really nasty situation there. I hope your concerns are being addressed at the school.
I too am a NAFL parent, my elder one is there for the last 6 years while the younger one started this year. While truly empathising with you, I would like to also point out that some of the general observations about the school seem to the contrary to our observations. Some things that I have never faced are:
1) Homework - Hardly anything till 1st grade. It gradually increases after that but the last period in the school is for finishing the work and if you do that, the volume of work is like average 20 - 30 min per day; we dedicate another 30 minutes or so for revising. Only once in the period of 6 years, my daughter got 3 projects/test together in a weekend. When brought to the attention of the teacher, she apologised that there has been a miscommunication between teachers on the work. Otherwise, the class teacher keeps a tab on the work they get. Was the 55 pages something that she had to do over the course of a long time? because they do get sample NSTSE, IAIS question papers which are for practising.
2) Frequent visits to bathroom - I had this concern as both my children are girls and they have more tendency to develop UT. I had asked in a meeting once and was assured that they are asked to go between the periods and if urgent any time. Sometimes, children tend to misuse which is when the teacher intervenes. If a child has a genuine problem, they are usually taken care of. Infact that my first one was suffering from constant urge to pass motion while having stomach ache, was brought to my notice by her K 1 teacher. They advised me to keep her at home for sometime as my daughter was feeling embarrassed and helped her to keep in pace with her classmates on work.
3) PTA meetings - I have also observed that some teachers talk more about areas of improvement. But this seems to do with the personality of the teacher than the school philosophy. For one incident like that, I have atleast 10 other incidents where they say the positive things and then go on to areas of improvement (btw, i have noticed many parents guiding the discussion only to the problem areas ; somehow Indians feel guilty of hearing compliments!!) . And I have noticed that they are careful not to mention it in front of children.
4) I have never faced the situation of the child being treated for anything in school without informing the parents, other than the bruises and falls. They have always checked with us. My elder one has tendency to nose bleed -I was advised to give the ointment and the instructions to the administrator and inform the class teacher every year beginning. Once when it looked like it was not stopping , they called me immediately. If there is a note by the parent, they are taken seriously (like administering medicine, or alerting on symptoms, etc)
5) For regular work, the children are always handed out individual hand outs. Some competitive exam papers are given to children with the request to parents to photo copy and circulate to a list of other children - since the teachers have only a few copies and these are not mandatory ones.
6) It is not that we have never had problems. But I can say that all those times,we have been able to address them to our satisfaction (& the kids too!) by talking and analysing and taking the help of the school and they have helped us definitely. Even now, my younger one is going through an anxiety issue and is claustrophobic (she wants to complete any work first and correctly; and hates closed spaces like auditorium); the teachers have been extremely helpful in addressing it and have not forced her at all. She has been personally carried by teachers and spoken to during those times to pacify her. This has really impressed us actually; and my daughter is now looking forward to her lit fest in the auditorium.
As a parent, I can imagine your trauma ; I am sure you are doing your best to resolve them and you are the best judge to see how to take it forward. I am just sharing our experince because as you rightly said, as much as it is a crime to take injustice sitting down, it is also my duty to share the different experience from our side.
I wish you and your children the courage to see through this difficult time and emerge triumphant.
Sumo |
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Hi SatSheila,
I would really like to thank you for the frank review of the school. There are very few people who have the courage to speak out about the school's +ve and -ve points. You feedback definitely helps parents like us decide on a school for our child. Just like everybody else, we too want the best for our child, so somewhere we are pulled to a school based on its name and reputation. Your review is definitely helpful for us.
Thanks
Radhika |
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| satsheila (United States) |
Feb 8, 2011 2:19 AM |
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An update is coming soon... I wanted to give 60 days after our meeting with the chairman, Dr. Gopalakrishna, to see any remarkable changes on how my kids would feel to be part of NAFL after the unwanted, eventful problems during the 1st semester.
-- SatSheila |
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| vmom (United States) |
Feb 7, 2011 12:26 AM |
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Hi,
I am very disturbed to read your account. Is it possible to communicate over private email?
Thanks
NTS |
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