Mushrooming Playschools

In the Recent years, Playschools have boomed up like mushrooms everywhere. Almost every street in the city ends up with a Playschool or a Franchise of one such school. Starting a Playschool has become a Plaything now. Some say “Hey! It’s a great business now. I too want to start one! “I give the weirdest of my facial expressions to those who say that to me.

What’s your investment for this my dears? I ask

“Some bucks, few teachers & aayah’s, a colourfully painted place, Montessori toys, play gyms, a set curriculum for kids. Ofcourse, a cool name, a catchy slogan and an appealing website for the Playschool”.  That’s all?? !  

????(They start thinking intensely in their minds to bring out few more valid points to start a play school, but nothing actually comes out)

Yes! Love, Passion, affection, patience to nurture the kids hardly appear in their list.

Playschools -  Most of them a pure business today

Startup playschools shower their offers and assert a lovable, educative environment for our kids, but when admissions start pouring in for them, they do forget even the basic and most important promised standards on Hygiene & Safety.

Initially their slogan will be ‘Child friendly..blah blah ‘, but over a period of time it would be just ‘Money friendly’ !  Playschools admit kids of age groups from 1.5 yrs till 5 yrs. When most of the older kids find something to learn n play, the worst affected ones are the toddlers who are below 2/ 2.5 yrs of age.  

Some Playschools have a ‘Structured curriculum’ for kids who are below 2/2.5 yrs! Wouldn’t a two year old baby want to run, explore & play all the time? They are to be set free, under careful supervision. But there are Playschools where the kids are safely confined to a place just to avoid accidents.

Indifferent Teachers in Playschools

Teachers of most of the Playschools (especially the so called ‘popular ‘ones) lack care and true affection to the kids. If there’s a long absentee child/ toddler due to sickness, how many teachers call up the parents and ask about the well being of their student kid??

Recently one of my close friend’s 2 yr old daughter was very unwell and couldn’t go to the playschool for many days.  The kid’s teacher one fine day rang her up and asked “Is you kid coming to school today, because there’s a Annual Day rehearsal today and there’s a class photo session ?!! My friend was truly expecting a “How’s your kid?” type of question first from the teacher! (To remember: At the time of admission their slogan was “We are the parents of your kids in the school”)
End of the day, parents do regret the decision of putting their dear little ones in such schools. Playschools claim to prepare the kids for the regular schools. But how many sincerely follow that is a big question today.

One genuine advice to working moms/ moms of ‘super’ active toddlers. Please don’t fall prey just to the Big name, flashy ads, or websites of the playschools or the testimonial which appear in their sites. Also, please beware of some Playschools with International tags, as they develop unhealthy eating habits in kids, by offering them pizzas, chocolates, processed foods and drinks.