Recently, a school annual function made headlines. This makes more sense with context. The school function was a performance by star kids and well, other students at Dhirubhai Ambani International School. The event left people intrigued, probably because we saw some of our favourite celebs as audiences. However, it also raised so many questions around the elite schools in the country.
Questions like how the actual schooling works at these schools or the general atmosphere. So we surfed through Reddit threads, and here’s what people shared.
1. “I had a friend who went to DAIS, you’d be surprised at how many people are middle class and barely scraping through with the fees.”
2. “In 2015, I was interviewed for a teaching job. Sarah Tendulkar was in my demo class. In the psychology round, the lady asked me, ‘How will you deal with kids who come from very privileged backgrounds? How will you get them interested in your chosen discipline of study?'”
3. “You wouldn’t even get an admission over there man. That school is specifically for kids of the richest people in Mumbai. And frankly speaking, rich kids of industrialists don’t fancy themselves acting and dancing on stage.”
4. “Dhirubai is good from what I have heard and Echole is basically shit. Echole is sort of the school in which you literally pay an exorbitantly high fees for mediocre education. It focuses on all sorts of extra curricular activities but barely lays emphasis on studies.”
5. “Jamnabai had a lot of groupism. People without groups were loners or picked on. I was in the middle but naturally, Alia had a group since I can remember.”
6. “Watch Class on Netflix. A little over exaggerated but a lot of elite school Gen Z kids kinda fall into that demographic nowadays. Even if you’re from a well to do family, you’ll always be in a rat race against these socialites, some of whom are star kids with endless pockets.”
– cmvora
7. “Heard this years ago from a teacher about schools like DAIS where she said that the kids were all spoilt brats, focused on one-upping each other through wealth or power. Supposedly the kids brag about their cars. If a kid’s driver comes to pick him up in a Merc, the other will get an Audi. The kids who can’t afford such expensive taste are ignored or ridiculed. Education also takes a back seat.”
8. “So just through casual conversation, the person mentioned that they worked in the Library Department of Ecole Mondiale School. I asked them if it was the school where kids of all Bollywood stars and other rich people go. What they said was nothing new, to be honest. How all these kids will sit in the library and keep discussing where, when, and how to party. Books were not returned on time by most of these kids, none of them cooperated when the library department contacted them.”
9. “It was mandatory to purchase tablet laptops on top of the tuition, which were slow, outdated and unnecessary – not only did I not use the laptop in any of my classes (though I sometimes typed notes) – but we were in fact told not to use said laptops. When a party was thrown, the guest list started from students in the 8th grade to the 12th grade. At extremely exclusive clubs as well, we would have a guest list with 12-25 year olds.”
10. “Man that Narsee school is really charging the same amount for 3rd standard what I paid for college. Can someone remind me why I should spend that money on a kid for 1 year instead of taking like 6 trips to various places by myself?”
Of the rich, by the rich, for the rich.
