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When your child is 2+, as a parent, one of the most important decisions that you will make is the choice of the right pre-school for your child. Now – a – days a number of schools with varied facilities have come up. The right choice is confusing. The most common questions asked by the majority of parents are:

Which is the right school for my child?
What are the facilities available?
What are the previous results?
Who are the organizers?
Are they educationists?
What are their qualifications?
Will my child be happy?”

As 50% of the brain development takes place in ages of 2-4 years it is critical that you make the right decision so as to ensure that your child receives the right foundation for life.

Call the preschools you might be interested in and set up a time to visit. You should probably make an appointment for your first visit so that you can be assured the Headmistress will be there and that you will not short staff them while someone shows you around. Some of the questions that you might want to know during the phone call are:

Is there an opening for my child?
What are your hours?
Where are you located?
Do you provide transportation?
Do you give the children meals or snacks?
When can I visit?

During that first visit, carefully observe while discussing in more detail some of the questions you have already asked or others that concern you. When you visit the branch, see if Children appear happy, content and actively engaged with what they are doing. There are several other factors that should be taken into consideration while making the all-important choice:

Firstly, Keeping in view the travel time, pollution on the roads, safety and stress on the child, the pre –school should be near the child’s home. So, parents are advised, that they should seek admissions in a school near their house, in line with the neighborhood policy and not make their child travel long distances at this age

You should also consider preschools that offer a safe and nurturing environment for your child. When you drop a child off for preschool, you want to be assured she or he will have the nurturing and learning environment they deserve, leaving you with the ability to concentrate on your work responsibilities. You should check whether, you’ll receive weekly progress reports, the ability to walk in or call at any time of the day, a structured curriculum tailored to your child and more.

Looking at the facilities, firstly the Activity rooms should be well equipped with sufficient material. The environment, furniture and the activity material should be colorful & safe with a neat, clean and child friendly ambiance. The facilities should be such that your child can use and enjoy and are not just decoration pieces. The preschool setting should be safe, adequately lit and maintained to a good standard of hygiene. There should be a broad range and generous supply of toys and equipment easily accessible to children and adequate personal space for children to play. Children deserve comfortable, well-equipped premises that are carefully looked after. Children should be able to see toys, books and fun equipment and reach some of it themselves. Fresh, healthy food and snacks should be available.

Organizers and the staff are the backbone of any institute. So the parents should look for a pre- school organized by a team of well - educated, knowledgeable professionals with the right aptitude and love for children. It is important that the school system has been designed by and is run by reputed educationists The School should have a well –designed, coordinated and planned system because it is easy to confuse children without any system/planning. The school should have a system to continuously keep updating its system with the latest techniques and also to keep up with the changing requirements of the society and the child.

Working with children is a skilled and demanding job. The teachers should have the special qualities that distinguish a good teacher i.e. patience and understanding. They should be creative, innovative and resourceful, so as to satisfy a child’s curious mind. The staff should be selected systematically by the school authorities and have regular orientations and trainings on the latest teaching methodologies. Training gives people skills and confidence. It helps staff to deliver a top quality service to your child. On visiting the branch notice if the staff have a genuinely caring and friendly relationship with the children, it should have a calm atmosphere with no raised voices.

You would also want your child to be prepared well for senior school admissions so, you should ask if the preschool conducts mock interviews for parents and children, mock interviews of the children by external teachers, organizes parenting workshops & orientation sessions by experts. Also you may enquire about picnics, outings, cultural functions, sports days etc and whether there will be any additional charges for the same. Some preschools tend to ask money for stationery, picnics and other things later on which you should clarify right at the onset. A preschool which commits that there will be no charges for such things later on is a wiser choice rather than going in for one with hidden costs.

Consider the number of Years of experience the school has in the industry. The older schools have experience of handling a variety of children and you will benefit from the rich understanding of child psychology.

Another thing to check out before choosing the preschool for your child is the performance of the school’s alumni in senior schools. You can talk to other parents on how happy their children were in the preschool and senior schools. Also talk to teachers in senior schools as to which preschool’s children tend to be selected in their schools and also do better in later classes.

An established brand with a proven education system is safer than risking your child’s future with an unknown name so check out schools that are well established and have a solid reputation in the city.

And finally think if “I WOULD BE HAPPY HERE IF I WERE A CHILD & I FEEL COMFORTABLE LEAVING MY CHILD HERE” You should get your answer!

Your child deserves the best, but I leave this privilege to you to decide for your child. Every child deserves to go to a school where he is happy, has lots of fun, learns gradually without any stress and strain. Try to talk to the parents of a child already going to the school you have chosen because they will be ones to tell you if your chosen school will give your child good foundation and help him to carry on to the right school of his capacity.

Non-cyclical sector: Being a necessity of life, the education industry has little fluctuations in its operations; therefore, it is not affected by downturns in the economy. For example, people will stop eating out but will not compromise on the quality of their child’s education, in case of a financial crunch.

Rapid growth: With increasing awareness of the importance of education, people are willing to pay more for quality education and this trend will get stronger as the service economy grows.

No bad debts: There is no threat of bad debts as no credit is given in this sector and all fees are received in advance.

Low operational costs: Most of the costs are variable costs. Hence, in the first few months you are not burdened with high costs like salaries. These go up as the number of children in the branch increase.

Immense satisfaction: More than the monetary returns, it is the sense of satisfaction that you have made a difference to the lives of so many children! It is a great feeling when parents come to thank you for the impact you have made in their child’s life.

Convenient working hours: The operational hours are from 8:00-2:30, thereby, giving you ample time to be with your family and enjoy the fruits of your labour.

Positive environment: In education, everyone is addresses by “ma’am and sir” which is a positive and safe environment, especially for women. Unlike some other sector where you encounter all kinds of people; some of them may not be the most pleasant.

Respect in the community: One gets a lot of respect in the community, for the role one plays in the development of the children and for the contribution one makes to the society.

You can start different types of schools based on your investment range. This investment (in addition to the land) can start from 3-4 Lakhs for a playschool (also referred to as preschool/nursery school/kindergarten/Montessori) upto 20 crores for a full fledged boarding school of international standards. You can start on your own or take a franchise of a school brand.

Playschool: The area should have at least 3-4 rooms for classrooms & activities. Playschools don’t require any affiliation but you must check with the local civic authorities whether a playschool is permitted at the location you have identified. Ideally it should be in a decent residential location with a sizeable population in the immediate vicinity. You should also budget for cash for 6 months by which preschools normally break even.

Senior Secondary School: You should check the minimum requirements in terms of area and construction from the school board you are planning to get the affiliation from. The thumb rule for size is – the further your land is from the city- the bigger it should be to enable you to offer more facilities than what city schools may be offering in limited area. You should also budget in cash for 2 years as the break even normally happens by the third year.