R2I Club Member Hangout

social wrote: ↑Wed Sep 18, 2024 4:13 pm Here's my R2I story. I r2i'd this year from US to pune, India in June. daughter 14 and son 10, joined school in pune. They are not enjoying their life as initially expected since everything changed and they were not really on board when we decided to move. They were too happy with their life in America.

Indian schooling has been disappointing at best. We enrolled them in a good CBSE school and it is considered a good school in our community. Kids who always wanted to go to school and never missed a day of school in life, started hating their school when we moved to India. Another disappointment was around sports activities. Our kids have been fairly active in sports when they were in US and getting quality sports coaching has been a challenge both in school and outside.

We are seriously considering if we should move back just to get schooling done before doing another round of r2i after 8 years. Kids are US citizens if that matters. Want to understand from others what they went through when they moved and how did they deal with it?

Hey social,
Just hop on the next plane …

social wrote: ↑Wed Sep 18, 2024 4:13 pm Here's my R2I story. I r2i'd this year from US to pune, India in June. daughter 14 and son 10, joined school in pune. They are not enjoying their life as initially expected since everything changed and they were not really on board when we decided to move. They were too happy with their life in America.

Indian schooling has been disappointing at best. We enrolled them in a good CBSE school and it is considered a good school in our community. Kids who always wanted to go to school and never missed a day of school in life, started hating their school when we moved to India. Another disappointment was around sports activities. Our kids have been fairly active in sports when they were in US and getting quality sports coaching has been a challenge both in school and outside.

We are seriously considering if we should move back just to get schooling done before doing another round of r2i after 8 years. Kids are US citizens if that matters. Want to understand from others what they went through when they moved and how did they deal with it?

social wrote: ↑Thu Sep 19, 2024 3:54 pm

Hey social,
Just hop on the next plane …

Considering we have already taken the hardest step that is actually moving and getting ourselves settled with housing/schooling etc. We want to try and find some solutions before we decide to move back. Is it generally a hopeless situation to try to even solve it? Is schooling and sports will in general suck across the board?

Returning_Indian wrote: ↑Thu Sep 19, 2024 11:48 pm Don't know why you chose CBSE school. It has a different philosophy compared to western education. We chose purely international curriculum (IB) and are really impressed with the new age educational system in India. Focus on education is very high, academic kids are not labeled as nerds, superb facilities for study and extracurricular activities, other kids from same mindset and very kind in general, debates, public speaking opportunities, competition among schools/international/national in sports, writing etc. Amazing building like famous Scotland schools is a plus. I wish I went to such schools. School also has a major role to play. Teachers make lot of efforts for my son to develop friend circle. They assigned an academically oriented girl to help him navigate the school/courses etc. sort of like a buddy.

I based in Gurgaon so that may open more choices but CBSE for foreign kids is a losing battle unless focus is to get into IIT/NEET. In addition, if you plan to take them to US for college then plan on having atleast 12th grade from US high school otherwise you are limiting your choices both for scholarship and admission in US. I have a friend who admitted his 10yr old in CBSE and he is doing very well competing with other kids. Initially, it was a bit struggle as he was completely American but after 6months when he made friends, things settled down a bit and now he is enjoying the school.

Returning_Indian wrote: ↑Thu Sep 19, 2024 11:48 pm Don't know why you chose CBSE school. It has a different philosophy compared to western education. We chose purely international curriculum (IB) and are really impressed with the new age educational system in India. Focus on education is very high, academic kids are not labeled as nerds, superb facilities for study and extracurricular activities, other kids from same mindset and very kind in general, debates, public speaking opportunities, competition among schools/international/national in sports, writing etc. Amazing building like famous Scotland schools is a plus. I wish I went to such schools. School also has a major role to play. Teachers make lot of efforts for my son to develop friend circle. They assigned an academically oriented girl to help him navigate the school/courses etc. sort of like a buddy.

I based in Gurgaon so that may open more choices but CBSE for foreign kids is a losing battle unless focus is to get into IIT/NEET. In addition, if you plan to take them to US for college then plan on having atleast 12th grade from US high school otherwise you are limiting your choices both for scholarship and admission in US. I have a friend who admitted his 10yr old in CBSE and he is doing very well competing with other kids. Initially, it was a bit struggle as he was completely American but after 6months when he made friends, things settled down a bit and now he is enjoying the school.