Undisciplined environment. Review on Oakridge International School, Hyderabad

This is a fairly long review with thoughts formulated over several years. My children study at Oakridge and I have personal experience with primary, middle and senior schools and with the different curricula at the school.

If I were to sum up my review in two words it would have to be'Undisciplined environment'.

Lack of discipline at all levels in the school starting from management to parents to students has created a very poor academic environment.

Complete lack of indiscipline at all levels

home work assigned but not corrected

tests scheduled but postponed

calendar is not followed

weekly tests not conducted according to schedule

When children see this attitude from teachers, they begin to expect it in their academic life. They cut corners in studies and start believing that it is not necessary to work hard in life. I will touch on this aspect in other sections of this review.

Crowded

corridors are always noisy even when classes are going on. Staff does not seem to monitor the students and no effort seems to be made to keep the school quiet when classes are in progress.

Traffic situation is terrible - the area around the school during the morning drop off and pickup time is a huge mess.

In spite of crowded classrooms and crowded roads, the school continues to aggressively market itself and increase student population. The school is bursting at the seams.

Student to teacher ratio is very high for the amount of tuition the school demands.

Teachers are unable to provide personalized attention to the students. If you are paying an arm and a leg in tuition, the least you expect is attention being paid to your child who spends a major part of their week at school.

Teacher quality

poorly trained teachers - some teachers are unable to converse with parents. I can only imagine how well they impart ideas and converse with students!

Language teachers can barely string two sentences together without it being full of grammatical errors.

Absent teachers do not give work for that period. Almost always, substitute teachers are also not assigned leaving the children to loiter and waste time.

This is especially a huge problem in 7-12 grades when time is at a premium. When a teacher is absent for 1 hour block periods, that's a huge chunk of precious time wasted.

Teacher attrition - teachers are overburdened and are managing too many children. This takes the focus of the teacher away from academics and forces them to waste a lot of time on management. Good teachers do not consider it worth their while to continue in this environment so they move.

Curriculum

PYP - extremely poor foundation in the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic because of quality of teaching

no text books for PYP - so no idea what is being taught in school and an involved parent will find it extremely difficult to trust the school and teachers.

Primary years is an impressionable time; it is the time to lay a solid foundation in values and study ethics. Children joining primary school will turn out undisciplined and have an uncaring attitude towards school and studies, so beware.

CBSE is the poor step-child. Any self respecting student who wants to do well in CBSE, might stay on till 10th but should definitely move out after 10th, especially if they are interested in the sciences. The quality of teachers is beyond abyssmal and the student performance is pathetic.

Any good teacher who can speak decent English is moved out of CBSE to MYP or IBDP irrespective of whether they can handle the curriculum or not. CBSE is not given due regard and the school creates divisions between students in the CBSE and International curriculum. Students are brainwashed at school with presentations and told to choose international curriculum.

MYP

The school recently got certified for the MYP program making this one of the few complete IB schools - IB programs in primary, middle and senior schools. The reason why it is hard for schools to get certified for MYP is that it is an extremely rigorous program in terms of teaching methodology. A very high level of training is required of the teachers. The program is excellent but execution of the program at Oakridge deserves a zero. Students in the program are required to do research. With lack of appropriate direction and guidance from the teachers, all these kids end up becoming proficient in is using Google, cutting and pasting and MS Office. Academic foundation for senior school is not laid. There is a strong feeling among the parents that it is very likely that the teachers also have no idea of what is expected and how to implement the program effectively.

IBDP

The IBDP program is excellent and colleges regard it highly. It requires the students to be highly organized in their academic life and manage their time well. As a result of the rigor built into the program, children come out of the program well prepared for college. But what is a child to do if the school is extremely undisciplined about following a schedule. It becomes difficult for an earnest student to manage their time efficiently when there is so much uncertainty built into the schedule. Tests and exams are scheduled and then cancelled at will. Teacher absenteeism is high and the school management makes no effort to assign work during teacher absences leaving the children to while away their time.

Gross indiscipline permeates every level of interaction. Children learn ways to get away with doing less rather than inculcating good work and study ethics.

Quality of IB education at Oakridge was excellent 4 years back. They built a name for themselves as a premier IB institution. Lately, year after year, the quality has sunk and has now reached abysmally low levels.

In 11th and 12th grades when the students are facing an enormous amount of stress, the school management and their attitude only exacerbates the situation. If a student gets into a good college, it is in spite of Oakridge - not because of it.

The school has moved its focus from academics to business development. Good teachers have been moved to management which is a telling sign of how much value the school management places on academics. They still have some good teachers but they are an unhappy, under appreciated, overburdened lot. No wonder the school is unable to retain good teachers.

You will be paying a ton load of dough to admit your child to this school hoping that you will not need to worry about your child's schooling. You will be in for a surprise though. If you value academics but do not have the time or ability to monitor/teach your child at home, be prepared to send them to extra tuition classes after-school. That is the norm.

=Extra curricular activities(ECA)==

In school extracurricular activities is nonexistent

Teachers can't control classrooms in upper elementary and middle schools because they are unable to generate interest in the students.

if a student does well in shooting, swimming, tennis or any other activity it is only because they are doing it outside of school

School is quick to take credit even though when their  contribution to the student's growth is zero

A lot of classes are wasted on ECAs during the school day because nothing productive gets done in them. The school has after school classes for some ECAs but you pay extra for that. Field trips, adventure camps, leadership camps are organized throughout the year.

Practice for Treasure fest in October and Founders Day in December takes away a lot of academic time. Granted children should be provided avenues for expression but children waste a lot of time because of the disorganized manner in which events and practice are conducted.

==Poor management=

Extremely commercialized - focus on academics is NIL

No criteria for admitting students - quality of student population is poor - rich, indisciplined kids - culture flows to even the good kids and corrupts them unless parents very closely monitor their kids.

Poor student quality has a direct impact on teacher quality and performance. Good teachers who care about imparting good in addition to good moral values face an uphill fight due to student quality. They do not find it worthwhile to continue in a school where they are disrespected by students, parents and management.

Who is this school for

Oakridge International School is well suited for those kids who cannot get admission into any other school or have been thrown out of other schools due to poor academic performance. This school is perfect for parents who have the ability to pay lakhs for getting nothing in return.

This school is a poor combination of international and traditional school methodology. It harps on the new mantra of the ages - holistic development. In my opinion, it is more hol(e)istic than holistic - holes in academics, holes in extracurriculars leading to holes in student development.