This is a guest post by Ashma Gomber. Ashma is currently working with Hewlett Packard India. She is an electrical engineer by profession, an avid reader and a loving mother.

Ooh! My child’s school bag is heavier than our weekly grocery supplies. Oh, he has one test after the other, one competition following previous! Oh God! Such an elaborate project work – I need to take time out to complete it for him. All these sound like familiar ramblings of parents. So much so that we sometimes we feel as if our schools are turning our children and their lives into a pressure cooker at an extremely tender age. But is that really so?

The answer can be yes, or no depending on what angle we see it from and what sort of school our child attends.

From my own experience and from talking to various parents, I feel there are schools with different philosophies, ranging from those totally focused on academics to the ones more focused on extra curricular activities.

While it is very important to choose a school which is in line with your philosophy with respect to your child’s education, it is also important to continue to have faith in the school ‘s philosophy and the decisions of management once you have made the choice. As they are experts in the field of education and typically would know from their experience as to what works best of children. Kids are by nature resilient and adapt to any situation better than we think. Schools believe that by exposing kids to pressure at an early stage, they are preparing the kids for the competitive world in the future.

However, if as a parent you feel that the pressure is too much for your child to cope with do point it out. But also remember that you and the school are on the same team. Work together for the growth of your child. Recently it was announced that there will be changes in the examination format and assessment implemented by CBSE (The Central Board of Secondary Education (abbreviated CBSE) is a Board of Education for school level in India of Central Government). The proposed plan would ensure focus on all aspects of the education, be it class work, attendance, project work so and so forth. This would ensure less emphasis on the outcome of exams and more on overall learning and development of rounded personality.

From historic data, it is evident that students coming from either category of schools do well in their careers, and their day to day lives as is clear from admissions data at top colleges. As while schools play an important role in shaping children ‘s lives, a lot also depends on the atmosphere at home and the participation of parents in their children ‘s academics journey.

Hence, we as parents, can help kids by providing them a nurturing and supportive environment at home, giving them good values and preparing them for successes and failures in life and let the school do the rest.