Jun 17, 2009 04:00 PM
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(Updated Jun 17, 2009 04:05 PM)
My husband and I chose Neev's new Koramangala branchas our toddler's first school after researching several play-schoolsand day-cares, mostly based on online reviews.
Despitethe high fees and the fact that we were not allowed to attend a'live'session(they allow prospective parents to view a session only withadvance notice at one particular time of their choice) we wereimpressed by the facilities and the principal and decided to registerwith Neev.
Right from the first day wenoticed that many of the teachers seemed to lack the enthusiasm andenergy in their interaction with the children. Admittedly, this was thefirst week and there will be some amount of uncertainty on the part ofthe children and parents but this is exactly where the teachers shouldhave stepped up and ensured everyone’s made comfortable and welcome.Little things, like not using saying ‘Please’ and ‘Thank You’ withkids, allowing shoes for everyone even in the toddler areas where kidsspend most of their time on the floor, and leaving the sandpitunattended while children were playing there, just add up to form a bigproblem.
But most important, was our verysurreal experience when we wished to discuss our concerns with thecenter head and principal/founder, together. First, we were denied anappointment with the principal and were forced to talk only with thecentre head. The principal did appear half-way through the meeting andeven before we could finish explaining our point of view she went onthe defensive, completely closed to what we had to say. Within minutes, what was an open discussion deteriorated into a rude defence based onhow we did not know enough to judge right or wrong about theenvironment and teachers at Neev. The principal actually asked us whywe were wasting the centre head's time(the appointment was given bytheir staff the previous day- we hadn't insisted on any particulartime). The scene was more like a road-side quarrel than aparent-teacher discussion. Long story short, we left Neev more baffledthan angry at the extremely discourteous, ill-mannered and closedattitude of the principal. Needless to say, the principal completelyrefused to even talk about the Rs. Sixty-three Thousand we had alreadypaid them. Our child went to Neev all of three days.
Thepoint of this long-winded review is that prospective parents keep inmind that reputation of a certain school or branch certainly does notguarantee good service and high standards. In this case though, theprincipal's actions definitely explain the sorry state of Neev: Big ontalk before you pay up, zero in implementation and simple courtesyafterwards.
