The ideal school at the age of 3 years is one where there is a lot of fun & enjoyment for the child, along with knowledge of the basic & elementary things like recognition of alphabets, knowing names of common things, colours, animals etc. This learning should be in the spirit of play & fun; and not disciplinary where the child is made to sit at one place in the classroom for 3-4 hours & then taught things properly. The teacher’s over there should have an open attachment & love for the children & should be able to interact with them at their level.

They should also enjoy taking part in fun and games with the small children and not have the outlook of just going through the motions, without being involved with the children closely. Rather than having a feeling of awe or fear for a teacher, a child should like him as a friend. Parents should make efforts search for a school that meet these requirements. The reason is simple. At a small age, the child should not be put under pressure. He should learn things in the spirit of playing. This way there is a positive development of the child.

A good school should stress on the all-round development of the child rather than focusing only on academics. Schools take great pride that 90% of their students achieve 1st division, and this is also the main reason that the parents consider for decision making. It is praise worthy that the average academic level of a school is very good, but schools should also see to it that each child develops to his full potential. All round development doesn’t mean that the child should be taught all things sundry like music, sports, acting in dramas, debates, paintings etc. They are needed, but much more important is that the child is embedded with a basic sense of value, self-confidence & positive self-esteem.

An important statement of any school should be “democracy builds discipline.” A good teacher knows that if he/she is enforcing himself/herself upon the children without letting them freedom of self-expression, if he/she acts in a dictatorial fashion. So a good teacher strives to do combined project work, involving the co-operation of all the students, listening and discussing with them various ways of approaching and resolving a specific problem so that the children are inspired and thus develop to their full potential. The teacher should also be able to pay individualized attention to each and every child, and therefore the size of the class should be less than 30 students preferably.