Everything that any school gives to its students comes from a curriculum, which the school subscribes to within the chosen system of education. Some top curricula choices include the International Baccalaureate, British, Indian, and the American school curriculum. Each curriculum defines what the institution provides to its students, and this includes subjects and assessments. So, what’s the best curriculum for your child?
Before selecting a specific curriculum, it’s imperative that you learn everything that you can about the curriculum which you intend to choose. There is no single perfect path to delivering education to your children, and a child that does well within one curriculum may not do well under other curricula. The outcome also happens because different children have different learning styles and abilities. As such, you need to understand the educational needs and learning style of your child and use them to find a curriculum that befits their talents, interests, learning needs, styles, and capability. Read on to understand what curriculum may be ideal for your child.
The Academic Focus of a Curriculum
Academic performance is of utmost importance to most parents, and other areas are of little importance to some parents. But when academic performance goes low some parents tend to focus on extra-curricular activities that can help a child to explore and develop their talents and skills in other non-academic areas such as sports and music. These non-academic areas can also offer a successful future career in the arts and sports. Ideally, a good curriculum should have more focus on academics, but it shouldn’t negate the non-academic areas. In essence, a well-rounded curriculum should be holistic in nature.
Social Skills
Schooling is often aimed at improving academic skills and prowess. But as highlighted earlier learning should be holistic. An ideal curriculum should facilitate the development of academic excellence and improved skills in socialization and leadership. It’s in schools that children will learn how to interact with others and in the process develop their communication, interpersonal, social, and leadership skills. You should thus choose a school with an interdisciplinary curriculum that will not only build their academic excellence, but also their cultural and social awareness.
Prospects of Studying Abroad
Some curricula are well prepared for local setups, and they can’t prepare students well for international challenges. If you’d like to give your child some global exposure and challenge, then you should consider taking them through an international curriculum that can prepare them for international studies abroad. According to the New York Times, the strength of a curriculum and the level of test scores determine the ability to get admitted to a top global institution of higher learning. If you’re preparing your student for international studies abroad, then you should consider choosing a curriculum that is relevant abroad.
Parental Involvement
Are you willing to get involved in your child’s studies? How much time can you dedicate to such an end? Ideally, all parents need to get involved in their children’s academic lives. Most curricula try to involve you in your child’s academic and extra-curricular activity pursuits such as sporting or music. Different school boards require different levels of engagement. It’s good for you to learn how much of a commitment each curriculum requires and determine whether you can get such time from your busy schedule. Ideally, you should select curricula, which have considerable parent engagement, but it shouldn’t be too much for you to handle.
Curriculum Cost Factor
Different curricula have varying requirements on the different aspects of education and learning. For instance, the American kindergarten curriculum may cost more than a similar Indian curriculum. As such, their costs also differ, and this accounts for the great too subtle variations in school fee amounts paid for different curricula. Affordable curricula options may not be the best, but neither are the costly options. You need do some careful selection based on the learning needs and style of your child before you can consider the cost element, which should ideally come in as the last consideration.