Indian School

   Bangalore International School (BIS) is located on the upper right corner of Bangalore and resides in a more rural part of the city. It is this school in which I have been placed. Unlike the U.S. where most everyone goes to a public school and would say they received a relatively good education, students in India prefer to go to a private school, especially ones run by nuns or priest. They do this because the stigma surrounding government run schools involves the ideas that all the teachers do not have the certification they need, they will not cover the information that should be taught in a school, etc. If you want your child to have a pretty good education then you should send them to a private school. BIS is one such private school. However, it is not run by nuns or priest.

   BIS is a private school but it is also international school. What makes an international school such is that it follows a national or international curriculum that is different from the nation it resides within. Usually these curriculums are based on United Kingdom or United States Education Systems. For BIS this is seen mostly at the high school level. For grades 9 and 10 they follow the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) which is through Cambridge. This prepares them for either the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IB)  or the General Certificate of Education Advanced Level (A Level). After grade 10 they choose which program they would like to complete for grades 11th and 12th. After this many of the students apply at a colleges in countries such as the United Kingdom, United States and Canada. There was actually a student that was accepted into Purdue a few days after I arrived. She will graduate in June. School at BIS runs longer than other schools in India which get out at in April, however since BIS is an international school they have to take exams that run till the end of May. They finish up classes end of March beginning of April spending the rest of the time taking a mock exam and then studying for the actual exam.

   For classes, students arrive at school by 7:45am for assembly announcements in the amphitheatre then head to class at 7:55. They have three class periods that are 40 minutes long. Then it is snack break for fifteen minutes. Teachers go to a lounge room to eat and enjoy tea/coffee. Then there are four more class periods each 40 minutes long then it is lunch time at 12:55, where teachers go to the lounge again for food. After a thirty minute lunch there are two more 35 minute classes and school ends at 2:30 pm. These classes are not the same as typical school in the United States. There you either have block scheduling where they have the class every other day or schools have the student take the class every day. This is not how it works here. For example 11 grade IB students will have a History class periods 2 and 3 (for what is called a double period class) on Wednesday, periods 8 and 9 on Thursday (another double), and again periods 2 and 3 on Friday (double again). Other than these days the students do not have that class. So for none history lovers that would leave Monday and Tuesday history free! This is the same schedule for middle and high school which classes being double or single periods on certain days of the week.

   Every weekday morning I get up and head to school along the street below (it takes me like 3 minutes to get from my room to the school gates). - That is nice!

The building I stay at is the left corner building at the end of the road - BIS was to my right when I took this picture.

The front of the school is below. I enter the school through the small gate to the right of the telephone pole. There are gates everywhere here.