A new school year is getting closer and many parents will either be seeking to enrol their children into schools for the first time or transfer them to a new school. Either way, selecting a school can be a very tasking thing to do. This comes because of the research and information that needs to be gathered before one can decide on which school to enrol a child in. Making a successful selection among all the numerous schools we have around will require just more than luck. Without engaging in the necessary and relevant procedure required for selecting the best school, many parents end up getting their children enrolled in a school that operates the 18th century education in this 21st century that we are in.
No matter what type of school you want- be it primary or secondary school, careful planning is a must. As the parent, the responsibility is on you to make the necessary and adequate research in order to ensure that your child has access to the best education available. Below are important factors that parents must consider before enrolling their children in any school. Every other factors intertwine with them.
1. BUDGET
This is the first most important point parents need to consider before sending their children to any school. A lot of parents have gotten themselves into financial crises all because they want their children to attend the ‘best schools’, these parents now get their children withdrawn from the school. Before enrolling your child in any school, it is crucial to consider your financial capability and budget. Although the norm is that paying high school fees will get your child the best education, this is not true in all cases. There are still many schools with moderate schools fees and excellent academic performances. A third-party educational marketing platform like SchoolsCompass provides you with the option to compare schools, which can be useful for parents with low budget no matter the location.
2. ENVIRONMENTAL AND HUMAN FACTOR
Under these factors, we have the learning environment, the facilities- both academic and extra-curricular facilities, and the human factors which includes the members of staff and management. Take a look at this analogy, let us assume that the environment is the ‘soil’, the members of staff are the ‘manure’, and the children are the ‘plants’. The parents who in this case are the farmers will want to grow their plants in a good soil, which everyone knows is perfect for the proper germination of the plants. The soil is not going to do the job alone, with the help of good manure, the best growth and production is assured. This simple description means as much as enrolling a child in a school with nice environment and facilities is important, this alone does not ensure their excellent academic performance, the ability of the members of staff to teach does.
Imagine having a school with the best facilities and nice serene environment but the teachers are not sound-minded, this will tell greatly on the way the students are taught and on their performances. To ensure that these two factors are well-balanced, have a tour round the school and ask necessary questions about the past academic performance of their students. The academic performances should be evaluated based on the average performance of the whole students, many parents are fond of judging the performance of the school based on the performance of just one student. Imagine these two schools, one produces a student with an all A result in WAEC and other students had C’s and D’s, the second school produces students that had A’s and B’s in their WAEC, you don’t say because the first school had the best student in WAEC you enroll your child in such school. The second school will be tagged as the school with the best academic performance because all the students performed well on the average.
3. LOCATION
Many might argue that location is part of the factors to consider when enrolling a child in school. This might be true, but I will tell you it is not in all cases. I’m sure you have heard or seen cases where parents will send their children to schools outside the country because such school has an excellent academic history. The cases where parents might consider location as a factor are when the child is still very young, or when there are health challenges. But in a case where the parent wants the best education for the child, the location of the school won’t be a problem.
