Top 7 Things To Look For In A School

Edited By Team Careers360 | Updated on Aug 12, 2025 01:37 PM IST

How do you choose the right school for your child? What factors should you consider? With the wide variety of choices available today, this decision can be challenging. Children today often have more schooling options than their parents did when they were growing up.

When selecting a school, it’s important to consider your child’s strengths, interests, and specific needs to ensure you make the right choice. The ideal school should offer opportunities for learning, growth, and overall development. Below are some key factors to keep in mind when choosing a school.

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Things to look for in a school - Identify schools and gather information about them

When buying a car, mobile phone, or refrigerator, you likely talk to friends and family and look for information and reviews in newspapers, magazines, or online. Likewise, if you’re searching for a school for your child, it’s helpful to gather as much information as possible before making a decision. You can start by contacting the school directly, visiting its website, and checking whether it is NAAC-accredited. Researching a school online before a personal visit can help answer many basic questions in advance.

Things to look for in a school

A visit to the school and meetings with teachers and staff will give you deeper insight into its philosophy, environment, and operations. Also, find out whether the school offers after-school activities such as sports, clubs, or tutoring. The effort you put into this research will be well worth it if it leads you to a school that brings out the best in your child.

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Things to look for in a school - The Right curriculum

When looking for things to consider in choosing a school, the right curriculum will provide a good start for the child. It also plays a vital role in fostering quality learning and supporting proper education. Given the many curriculum options available, picking the right one can be challenging. The best curriculum recognizes the value of each learner and caters to all their educational needs. The schools in India offer different curriculums, such as CBSE, ICSE, or other international curriculums such as the International Baccalaureate (IB) or Cambridge curriculum (IGCSE). ICSE and CBSE are very popular in India, providing students with a highly supportive and focused environment designed to help them reach their full potential. The IB and IGCSE take a student-centred approach to learning. This gives them a sense of freedom while fostering creativity and enhancing their learning and also provides an opportunity for global exposure. A curriculum should be selected based on the child's learning styles and needs, the child's interest level, as well as its adaptability and development appropriateness.

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Things to look for in a school - Cost of education

How much money are you willing to spend on your child's education? A lot of parents may think that schools charging high school fees provide better education. But this isn't necessarily true. Some government-run schools offer quality education at a much lower fee than some private schools. Nevertheless, a variety of factors, such as the availability of additional facilities and amenities in the school, could affect the fees charged. Amenities such as computer classrooms and multiple curriculum options can significantly increase the fee cost, and shouldn’t be left out when looking for things to consider in choosing a school.

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Things to look for in a school: The ratio of teachers to students

Before enrolling yourself/your child at a school, make sure to check the teacher-to-student ratio. This is one of the important things to consider in choosing a school. Some schools tend to increase the size of each class rather than the number of classes and teachers. If the number of students in a class is high, a teacher will not be able to give each child the attention that they need when they are growing. The teacher should be able to identify the difficulties and help students gain clarity, which can be accomplished only when a good connection is established between the teacher and student. As a general rule, a school should have one teacher per 30 to 35 students for primary/secondary schools and in a preschool class of 10-15 children, there should be a teacher and two assistants.

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Things to look for in a school - Extra-curricular activities

For a child to experience success in academics and extracurricular activities, he or she must have the support of the school. Schools should offer a variety of extracurricular activities, such as outdoor sports, arts and crafts, and performing arts, and are amongst the top things to consider in choosing a school. These experiences are essential to a student's learning experience since they foster team spirit, self-confidence, and leadership abilities. It is therefore vital that curricular and co-curricular studies should be seamlessly integrated for the holistic development of students, and a heavy emphasis on academics may hinder the development of these critical life skills. These activities can provide a child with a high-interest activity to keep him or her interested in school which is why it is crucial that you .

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Things to look for in a school: Location and transportation facilities

It is important to consider the distance between your home and school when choosing a school. The child should have as little travel time as possible each day. A study suggests that the long journeys to school may adversely affect the physical and mental health of students, which may negatively affect their overall well-being both personally and academically. In addition to safety concerns, enrolling your child in a school that is located near to your home would be advisable. It allows the child to have more free time, which can be spent on other activities as well as studies.

Things to look for in a school - Infrastructure

Given the steep fees schools charge, wouldn't you also want the schools to provide good infrastructure to the students? It is a physical space where your child will be growing up so it should naturally be one of the top things to look in a school. Well-planned school infrastructure is a key factor in effective teaching and learning. The infrastructure essentials that every school should have for its students include extracurricular workshops, libraries, sports fields, auditoriums, sports equipment, well-equipped laboratories, assembly areas, and proper sanitary facilities.

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The school years, without a doubt, are some of the most crucial years in a child's development. The quality of schools plays a huge role in shaping a child into a well-rounded individual. School serves as a second home for a child. So make sure to go through the list of things to consider in choosing a school. Choosing a school is a task that should be done only after analyzing and checking the standards of the school. This will help the child to grow both in his/her skill set and in his/her existing talent set. Furthermore, the school should help the child understand the world, encourage them to step out of their comfort zone, and be a beacon of hope for the future.

Author- This article has been authored by Yashodhra Arora, who is a Counselling Psychologist, with extensive experience in career counselling for high school students.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What are the most important things for a school?

The most important things for a school are its infrastructure, well-trained teachers and staff, and convenient transportation facilities. Schools should provide a child with the appropriate curriculum along with co-curricular activities.

2. How many curriculums are offered in India?

Some of the popular school curriculums in India are CBSE, ICSE, IB, IGCSE, state boards, etc.

3. What questions should I ask when visiting a school?

Parents can enquire about the philosophy of the school, their approach to learning, past academic performances, transportation facilities, safety and what other facilities and services are offered.

4. What is the priority one should look for when shortlisting a school for a child?

Identifying a space that fosters a child's growth and development should be the priority. Children's best values can only be fostered in a school with a positive learning environment with supportive teachers.

5. How can technology enhance the learning experience?

Learning and development are prioritized in a school that makes use of the latest technologies to deliver education. Games and interactive content should be used adequately with digital resources. This will help a child develop their imagination while also keeping them captivated. Multimedia and video are included in online learning, to promote real-time teaching.