Choosing the Right Curriculum for Your Child

Picking out a school to enroll your child in, is a monumental task since this becomes a huge contributing factor to the career choice of your child. The most important consideration that needs to be looked at is the curriculum. The United Arab Emirates can leave you spoilt for choice in this aspect. This is because UAE offers a wide mix of educational curricula in order to enable a smooth educational transition  for children of transient families. Therefore, choosing one from among the many becomes a mighty task. Three prominent curricula could be pointed out as follows:

• British or UK National Curriculum
• International Baccalaureate (IB)
• Indian curriculum

British Curriculum

In this curriculum, students are admitted from age 5 and education continues till age 16. This is a disadvantage in the British curriculum since your child needs to wait till age 5 before starting school. This curriculum is divided into 4 key stages. Students are required to take the GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) or the A level. The British curriculum is partial to a broader education standard rather than an in-depth studying. Students are tested on all the subjects till quite a later stage instead of putting the whole attention on a few of the subjects.

International Baccalaureate (IB)

This curriculum is ideal for students who are generally required to move around with their families, i.e. global expatriates. It takes in students from age 3 to 19. IB caters to the following programs:

• Early years
• Middle years
• Diploma programs

This curriculum provides a more globalized education than the British curriculum. It focuses more on preparing students for real life scenarios, rather than theory-based education. This curriculum is also more receptive of the newer methods and modern educational reforms. The basic skills are taught at a primary level and the studying pattern becomes more in-depth and focused to a select few than studying everything together. Inquisitiveness forms the key to the IB curriculum. Apart from that, the best part of IB education is that if you need to enroll your child in some other country at a certain slot then she won’t miss a thing. IB enables students traveling overseas to take up from exactly where they left off.

Indian Curriculum

The Indian curriculum is suitable for students who would wish to explore a wide variety of progressive educational courses. Students enrolling in this curriculum are required to take the ICSE or CBSE exam. It guarantees:

• A stronger base on the academics than the other curricula.
• An education system for students of varying abilities.
• A wide range of subjects including traditional and progressive ones

What points to look into before deciding?

Ask yourself the following questions before deciding on a curriculum:

• Does it ensure the overall development of your child and not just in academics?
• Is the curriculum accepted abroad?
• Are the instructional approaches used effective and cater to every child?
• Is student involvement encouraged?

Once you get the answers to the above questions, you are almost there. You could consider the following points as a basis of your decision.

• The right curriculum should be valid anywhere. If you need to relocate then the curriculum should not be a hindrance. Also when your child goes on job-hunting, the curriculum should not pose a problem.
• Your child’s individual learning needs should be catered to by the right curriculum.
• A proper curriculum should comprise of various kinds of courses because you never know what might come in handy for your child.
• The right curriculum should follow the proper standards of education.
• The  tutors qualification should be taken into account too.
• Flexibility of education is important
• You could have a talk with students of different curricula to understand the advantages or the difficulties they are facing, if any.
• You know your child the best. So you would know what suits best for her. Plan accordingly.
• Have a talk with your child. Let her know of the curriculum you have chosen for her. Pay attention to how she feels about it.

Having said all that, you need to relax and think everything through. Your child’s benefit should be the first priority considering other aspects like fees and so on. Refrain from taking an instant decision and you are good to go.