Benefits of sending your child to a boarding school

Pawas Tyagi, Co-Founder, edustoke

Education is regarded as a cornerstone of a well-rounded personality as well as professional success in all cultures. Knowledge, as the proverb goes, is indeed power. A firm foundation for a great and fulfilling future profession is laid by a good education during a child's formative years. Through co-curricular and extra-curricular activities, education helps in children's total growth and development, both mentally and physically. However, the fourteen years of schooling aren't just the eons when a child completes his formal education, it comprises the time and experiences that shape him for life. For this very reason, each element that constitutes school life has its role to play. Considering how integral the school years are for blooming a child's abilities, choosing the right school has its significance. But before parents even approach this question, the misery of choosing amidst day school and boarding school hits them. While this is another debate for which of these should be selected, boarding schools have academic supremacy that cannot be matched by day schools. They provide an atmosphere where students study, live, play, and work with one another. This can be substantiated with research by TABS (The Association of Boarding Schools) that says, 78 per cent of boarding school graduates felt well prepared for non-academic parts of college life, such as independence, social life, and time management, as opposed to 36 per cent of private day and 23 per cent of public-school graduates.

Needless to state, boarding schools have been around for decades, and the type of education they provide is nothing new to us. They are typically considered as educational institutes that only deliver the best education. Children from all walks of life attend boarding schools, where they receive a holistic and comprehensive education that extends beyond the classroom walls, preparing them to be the whole men and women of tomorrow. Interestingly, Indian parents' attitudes have shifted dramatically throughout the years. They are now increasingly urging their children to be self-sufficient and independent., Thus, let's take a closer look at a few of the notable advantages of sending children to a boarding school:

24/7 Curriculum

Boarding schools are a twenty-four-hour immersive education environment where every aspect of the day is focused on cultivating a student's development and growth. They have a diverse array of facilities and tend to have a richer curriculum with a wide variety of subjects and activities. This investment produces marvellous returns. According to global statistics, boarding school students spend more time on both academics and extracurricular activities compared to day school students.

Helps to sharpen social skills

Children at boarding school gain ample opportunity to explore their interests, interact a lot more with other kids with diverse interests and backgrounds. Children learn to communicate, cooperate and solve problems on their own making them further independent at a young age. They also gain experience in emotional regulation, perspective taking and adapting to relationship challenges that may arise during their tenure at the boarding school. This is vitally useful for them. College and corporate world adjustments become easier for children from boarding school as they are nurtured in a well-equipped environment to be independent, have time management skills and can adjust to any situation of being.

Peer learning and diversity

Well, boarding schools have this unique facet of maintaining the diversity of students. Both national and international students attend boarding school staying at the campus which makes these educational institutions rich in culture, opinions, ideas, and most importantly healthy competition. A child passes out of a residential school as a leader, as a survivor, and as a rational thinker. Moreover, getting such a diverse atmosphere at the learning stage helps them get through the ideas of others and helps them understand, accept and appreciate them. This not just encourages peer learning but also builds social and communication skills.

Discipline management

Boarding schools ensure the function of utmost discipline. It is a route to wholesome education, a good and disciplined lifestyle and robust all-round development of your child. Children who study in a boarding school live in an environment where they perform all the tasks themselves. Solving day to day problems and looking after their personal needs makes children independent, disciplined and self-reliant, for example, buying their essential items when they run out of them or making sure that their school uniforms are washed and ironed. They become responsible and learn to take care of things on their own. Self-discipline is an important aspect of a children's life and boarding schools seed that in them from the initial stage itself. This makes it easier for both teachers and students to focus on achieving the optimum in their academic results and is a good preparation for university and corporate life where students need to be self-disciplined to succeed.

Independence and adaptability

What a child learns at a young age stays lifelong with them. Boarding schools inculcate the qualities of being independent and adaptive into their personalities. Staying away from their families helps them manage everything on their own and acclimatizing to the school environment instils the ability to fine-tune and cope up even with enormous pressure which is a much-needed life skill of the modern world.

Smoother transition to university and professional life

Boarding schools are much more than just being an academic institution where students reside to study, it is a wholesome combination of every experience that a child needs to grow and emerge to reach their fullest potential. Gone are the days when boarding schools were a time for students to struggle and learn, the best boarding schools in India have progressed both in terms of infrastructure and amenities to offer the gurukul education values with a seamless, joyful, and engaging learning process.