Thread by @WeAreBangalore

Hello Bengaluru. Today I'm going to discuss about another pertinent topic.

I work as a technology and business consultant in Singapore & from time to time I also work on Management consulting projects.

On one of those occasions, I decided to work for a school project.

This organization was a public-private entity. They have schools all over Singapore and almost 12k students study in those centres.

The students were predominantly middle class. 80% of them were Chinese and Malays. 15% Indians. 5% others.

The school was looking to expand it's chain and enroll more students. They were looking at the future and had a very broad plan drafted to get there.

My job was to ascertain their old, legacy processes, study them and re-engineer into new, swift, efficient ones.

The requirement was to have advanced technologies come in to their processes & make it fool proof and future ready.

The processes were;

×School admissions
×Meals provisioning (students are served lunch)
×School trip planning
×Uniform procurement
×Special classes
×Fees

Etc.

It was a beautiful challenge. I was to go back to school after years !

I studied in a very good ICSE school in Bengaluru and I had a certain assumption about how things would be in a school.

Of course we have heard about a lot of advancements in school education.. still..

I was in for a HUGE surprise.

As part of my work, I decided to spend time at my client place-> the schools 😀

Cool right ? :)

Let me tell you... I was also a teacher in a government school (Hebbal) for 2 years. So I knew how well schools functioned.

A reminder that this wasn't a hi-fi private school. It was a middle class school.

So on the day of my school visit, I took a taxi and reached the school sharp at 8.15 am.

Do you know who greeted me ?

It was the school principal !

I later realised that the Principals are expected to reach before everyone else and has to be near the school door when parents drop their kids.

OK wait. I'm just getting started.

Next, I go inside the school and I'm asked to remove my shoes and socks.

Yes!

No one... Neither the teachers nor the students wear shoes/slippers inside the class rooms. This is to maintain good hygiene and cleanliness.😊

Then I see parents come one by one to drop off their kids.

And you know what ? The class teacher HAS to receive them and the kids.

If the class teacher is not present, he or she has to designate someone else to receive the students. Else the principal will do it !!!!

While this was happening, I saw another AMAZING event unfold.

There was a chair and a medical kit near the door. Guess what ?

The teacher has to do a short medical checkup for every kid coming inside the school. The teacher asks the kid to sit on the chair and the kids' body temperature is recorded and the body of the kid is also checked for injury or marks. All done in front of the parents.

This is to ensure daily monitoring of the kid's health as well as ensuring a sick child doesn't attend classes and affect other kids. :))

The way the teachers take care of the kids... It was so good to see that.

Once the kids are dropped off, the parents can also have conversations with the class teacher and principal almost on a daily basis. This is great for the growth of a child. :))👌

Once the kids are in, I had a look at the classrooms. It was beautiful. It was filled with drawings and artifacts done by students..However good or bad they were. It was truly their classroom..

During class hours, the teacher ensures every child is given the right focus. And all kids are treated equally. (I spent close to a week in this school)

The kids were allowed to express themselves wholeheartedly. No one made fun of them when they answered wrongly!!!

Next was LUNCH time !

Each kid is provided lunch in school. No one gets food from home.

If there are allergies, the parents have to inform the school authorities before hand..The school chef prepares food freshly in school premises & tailors them for kids with allergies

The playground facilities in the school premises are specially constructed to ensure they are child friendly. No material is too hard to injure a kid.

And the teachers constantly monitor what and how the kids play and engage in the school grounds..

No kid is left unattended.

In the evening, the parents / guardians will once again arrive to pick up the students. The teacher will be there to send off the kids.

Both while pickup and drop off,the parents/guardians have to digitally log the event in a digital screen preset near the class door.

This is to log the drop off and pickup of kids. This will also send an automated message to the registered parent/guardian phone numbers.

The schools also offer other services.

×Early child care services
×After school care

Early child care services are for kids as early as 6 months old. Given now a days both the parents work, the kids can be left at the hands of specially trained teachers/caretakers who handle the babies throughout the day. Each health parameter of the kids are recorded 3 times/day

The after school care is again for working parents who can only pick up their kids at around 6.30.

Once the school's get over by 3.30 or 4pm, the kids can still stay in school premises until their parents pick them up late in the evening.

Food and other amenities are provided

Such well defined, 360* care given to kids with utmost safety and attention is ideal for kids, especially in today's world.

All schools have excellent CCTV converge and teachers are always available via phone for any emergencies.

I can go on and on about their grading system.

All their scores are maintained in a dashboard accessible by parents.

The best thing is even the behavioral aspects of kids are recorded.

Of course, there is a lot of room for improvement. but it was mainly technological. That's why the school needed people like me.

But in terms of processes, they are truly well ahead of what we have in India!

Simple, yet effective processes have made such a big difference in the Singaporean education system.

They are one of the world leaders when it comes to education, standards and performance.

I wish our schools respected the parents & students more.

I feel today's schools only look at kids as cash cows.

I feel especially bad for parents who aren't treated the way they should be;

I hope things change for good.

This is also part of #UrbanDevelopment #BLR 😊

If you wanna know more about my experiences, reach me at @saikirankannan :)

We can have a long chat.