Types of Schools: As a student you have several options in Delhi depending on what you want.
- Government Schools run by the country of India called Kendriya Vidyalaya. There are 1,091 KV schools in India! All KV students follow the same curriculum, so if you move to a new city or state, you won't miss any part of your education.
- Public Schools are what we in the U.S. call private school. Public schools require parents to pay tuition for their child to attend the school. These schools (because they are not funded by the government) can focus on different types of curriculum. Two of the schools I included on this blog are public schools: Purnapramati School and Katha School.
- Schools for the Underprivileged Students: There are special schools for students who do not have much money. These schools' facilities are not as nice, but the teachers and administrators want to work at these schools to help the students. The students are separated by gender (for example, the girls attend Morning Session and boys attend Afternoon Session). Students get a little bit of money for attending school to help motivate them to stay in school and not drop out. Would money motivate you?
Grade Levels: Students attend school from Kindergarten to 10th grade. After 10th grade students can continue on at the high school in grades 10 +1 and 10 + 2. When the kindergarteners enter the school (most schools are kindergarten to 10+2) they have a welcoming ceremony (the top row of pictures) and graduation is very similar to that in the U.S. (the bottom row of pictures).
The School Schedule at KVs: In Delhi the schools are very crowded, so many schools have two sessions: a morning session and an afternoon session. Students are assigned one session to attend. Here's an example of the morning session schedule (afternoon would be the same but with different times). You can see from the picture on the left that each day the schedule is a different. Some times the students have science twice a day! Also notice how there is school on Saturday. |
7:00 AM = Morning Assembly 7:30-8:05 = Period 1 8:05-8:40 = Period 2 8:40-9:15 = Period 3 9:15-9:50 = Period 4 9:50-10:10 = Lunch 10:10-10:45 = Period 5 10:45-11:20 = Period 6 11:20-11:55 = Period 7 11:55-12:30 = Period 8 | Student Class Schedule 7:00 AM = Morning Assembly 7:30-8:05 = Science 8:05-8:40 = Library 8:40-9:15 = Hindi 9:15-9:50 = Social Studies 9:50-10:10 = Lunch 10:10-10:45 = Computers 10:45-11:20 = Maths 11:20-11:55 = Yoga 11:55-12:30 = English |
Why no passing periods? Because since there are about 40-50 students per class, the students stay in one classroom and the teachers are the ones that move. There are also no bells since the teachers move. The teacher teaches for 35 minutes and then moves to the next class.
All students in Morning Session are finished by 12:30 and all Afternoon Session students attend school from 12:30-6:00pm. What session would you like to attend?
All students in Morning Session are finished by 12:30 and all Afternoon Session students attend school from 12:30-6:00pm. What session would you like to attend?
Desks & Classroom Environment: Because there are so many students in a class and because the desks are benches for more than one student, students don't work in groups usually. Instead the teacher teaches and the students listen and learn. If the teacher asks a question, students raise their hand and are called on. If you are called on, you would stand up and answer the question. You would then continue to stand until the teacher said you could sit down again. All female teachers are called Mam and all male teachers are called Sir. When I would enter a room, the students would all stand and say "Good Morning Mam." Students don't have assigned seats but always sit at the desk with someone of the same gender. At Pushp Vihar there were two students per desk, but at the school for the underprivileged there were three students per desk. (see left) |
Science: Science is a very important subject in India, so important that students sometimes take 2 periods of science a day! For each class of students, they are broken up into two groups. Each group has a different science lab during science time so that classes can be small and all students can participate in the experiments. Students do experience each day and wear lab coats during science! |
Bathrooms: Students are not allowed to leave the classroom for any reason during class time. They may go to the bathroom during lunch or before/after school. Here is what the girls' bathroom looks like:
Technology available: All schools have several computer labs (mostly air conditioned!) with enough working computers for each student in the class (50 per lab). Teachers have access to white boards in most classrooms and LCD projectors in certain classrooms (depending on the particular KV school). At the Katha School, which is a public school, there was a robotics lab!