Update on schools

We have unfortunately had to change our kids' school from Pathways World School to American Embassy School.

When we started there , our son who has some distractibility issues, had a very sympathetic teacher who included him in the class in a very proactive manner. This resulted in him having a fairly gentle introduction to a new country. When he moved up a grade it appeared that his new teacher was not going to be able to provide similar support. Over an 8 month period, we tried in vain, to get the school administration and teacher/s concerned to make some commitment to helping him maintain better focus in the classroom. His work started to deteriorate and soon he completely stopped bringing homework, without any alarm or penalty from his teacher. There were also a few instances of bullying on the school bus which the school did not want to deal with and before I knew it he had stopped communicating with us at home. During this unhappy time, I heard of the possiblity of places being available at the American Embassy School in the boys' grade levels.

Long story short, we managed to get both the boys into AES. The Elementary school support team has, since March, been working to repair the backward slide that our son experienced at Pathways. He is now more communicative at home than he has ever been....sometimes its difficult to shut him up! The work in school is constantly monitored and he is learning to deliver better quality and quantity! Our other son has slipped seamlessly into AES, though he was flourishing at Pathways too.

AES is a much more expensive school, the highest fees in India, but they provide a very high quality of care and education. We couldn't put a price on helping our child, so we bit the bullet and made the change.

Pathways still has some maturing to do as a school. It's systems for dealing with the various issues are still to be put in place, we found. They also have a slight identity crisis as their student population is part full-time boarders and part day scholars. They have a tendency to use the boarding population as an excuse for whatever a day parent has a problem with and vice versa.

We know of expat/NRI kids who remain at Pathways and are happy there, so please don't assume that its all negative. Its still a good option for families whose education allowance won't extend to AES or who live closer to it. And AES does always have long waitlists for nearly all grade levels.

Hope this has been helpful.

Comments

[Paolo]

Hi, I started to work with the Bharti Group on the 5th of May, my family will join me from Italy at the end of July, we will live in Gurgaon. Last week I requested admission to Pathways for my son, he is 9. I was told Pathways is a very good school, hopefully we won't be facing those problems, although I still expect something, at least because this thing will be completely new to my son and it will take time to him to understand how it works. Let's keep in touch ;-)

[Mrinalini Rathore]

Hi Geet,
Have been reading your comments on schooling in Pathways. can we be in touch via email. I have a few queries regarding the school as my child will be joining soon. I am returning to the mother- land after many mnay years and am anxious about my child's settling into the country as even tho he is indian he has never really lived on a long termn basis in india. He is looking forweard to coming to india very much and especially excited about pathways. We have applied at AES too but there is waiting list. I would love to know more about your experiences with pathways. My email add is : mrinalinirathore@yahoo.com.