A tour of sector 56 of Gurgaon, Delhi’s fast-expanding satellite township, indicates that every layout or lane boasts an ‘international school’, some housed in as small an area as 1.5 acres. Currently there are ten self-styled international schools in Gurgaon and the number is rising. Some of them advertise on the local cable network with all sorts of spelling mistakes. Sometimes a video clip of the school’s grounds and premises is broadcast with little regard for production quality.

Against this backdrop it’s important to examine what the adjective ‘international’ means for a school. Is it land acreage? Curriculum? Infrastructure and facilities? Teacher-pupil ratio? Faculty qualifications? Or international examination board (s) affiliation?

By the ease and rapidity with which new international schools are mushrooming, one can’t help feeling that the promoters of these mint-fresh ‘international’ schools are hell-bent upon soaking the rich and getting into the pockets of ambitious parents.

According to knowledgeable educationists, there are very few truly ‘international’ schools in India. Embassy and high commission sponsored/ supported schools apart, Woodstock, Mussourie; Kodaikanal International; The International School Bangalore; The Calcutta International and Mahindra United World College are undoubtedly well-established international schools. New aspirants, the Gurgaon strivers excluded, could include, at a pinch, Pathways in Sohna, and Ecole Mondiale and Dhirubhai Ambani School both in Mumbai, and perhaps the Indus School, Bangalore.

The remainder of these so-called international schools are far behind, in terms of curriculums, salaries, facilities and ethos. Moreover apart from these obvious factors, perceptive sensitivity to little issues and an eye for detailed child friendliness that makes a school ‘international’ in the truest sense of the word, are practically non-existent in the new aspirants. The main difference therefore, is in attitude to investment and towards control. The recent developments in several of these schools — high turnover of staff, arbitrary appointments and pay disparities, self- aggrandisement, and unrestrained publicity — mirror what has been happening at The International School, Bangalore (EW September p. 66).

A common feature of these schools is the promise of IBO (International Baccalaureate Organisation, Geneva) affiliation. However most promoters and principals are ignorant about what being a genuine IB school means. When they are sufficiently educated, they blanch at the expense involved in affiliating with IBO because of the heavy cost of training teachers to deliver the IB curriculum. The stiff price of teacher training, over and above paying them handsome IB school-level salaries of Rs.12,000-plus per month is an unpleasant prospect for most international school managements. It’s much easier to be international in the manner of the Indira Gandhi International airport — international only by designation.

Among experts and experienced education consultants, there is a virtual consensus that the prime qualities of an international school are transparent systems, contemporary curriculums and streamlined management processes with freedom for innovation and individualism.

Despite protestations to the contrary, there’s no denying that education today is a business, but of a different genus. There are no commodities on sale. It involves children and how to shape their minds, their prospects and their future, so that they become active, contributing citizens who will eventually enrich society. Therefore the aim and objective of a school should not be merely to send its students to IITs or IIMs, but to develop their character and equip them with life skills to cope with complex and unexpected situations they will inevitably encounter. For this metamorphosis to happen, a team akin to magicians, combining great skill and generosity of spirit with deep perception and understanding needs to be developed by the school principal with adequate support by the management. Schools aspiring to be in the international league, need experienced and charismatic leaders capable of developing teachers and students.

It is said that great persons discuss ideas, the mediocre discuss events and the petty discuss people. Even a cursory inspection of many of these putative international schools will reveal that ideas, issues and events are seldom discussed or debated in their classrooms. It doesn’t take much to discern that the dominant objective of their managements is how to make more money, how to cut corners and save money, how to economise at the cost of quality. Such schools cannot be benchmarked with the best. They announce their inaugurations with fanfare, promising the earth and admissions follow. But all too soon the budgeting realities begin to bite and before long, the flood slows to a trickle and suddenly the golden eggs start looking brassy as the years spin past relentlessly, with the millions yet to flow into waiting coffers.

It’s easy to brand schools as international, but much harder to make them so.

(Rekha L. Rao is an alumna of University Malaya, Kuala Lumpur and works with leading educationists in Delhi)