Category: Education

 ‘All parents want the best for their children’ is a centuries old truth. For Indian parents this is by providing them with the best education, confirms a survey…PUJA GUPTA

Women, 55 per cent, more than men, 43 per cent, make investing in their child’s education a top long-term goal, said the survey done by Scripbox, a digital wealth management service.

In addition, investing in their children’s education is prioritised by Indians in both metros and non-metros, it said. While investing to put aside an emergency fund emerged as the most important short-term goal, owing to the current pandemic, investing in children’s education (46 per cent) topped other goals such as retirement (43 per cent), healthcare (37 per cent) or buying a house (29 per cent).

The survey included 630+ respondents in the age bracket of 25-55+ years across India. An equal number of men and women responded to the survey. Among the total number of respondents, 50 percent were under the age of 35.

The survey points to different priorities for those over the age of 35 years and those below. For those above 35, investing in their child’s education, 58 per cent, is by far their top priority. For millennials, those under 35 years of age, investing in a house trumps building a corpus for their child’s education.

Scripbox recommends that while individual investment goals are important, investors must have a holistic approach to their planning. They should begin by having a financial plan in place that takes into account different goals at different life stages. With education costs, right from pre-primary to university having escalated faster than inflation over the last decade or so, Scripbox offers the following recommendations for Indians to be prepared.

Work backwards while planning for the amount required. For a private college education in India, the fee over the next decade can be anywhere between Rs 8-15 lakh for the entire graduation course and a similar amount reaching up to Rs 25 lakh or so for post-graduation. After accounting for a 12 per cent escalation in annual education cost, it is an expense of around Rs 14 lakh on an average and upwards. This means you need a sum upwards of Rs 4.5 lakh each year for three years to fund higher education. In addition, factoring in a yearly increase, recommend upping the yearly investment amount by 5-10 per cent.

If you have time on your side, start a systematic investment plan (SIP) in an equity mutual fund. This will require you to invest every month regularly in an equity mutual fund, an amount that will accumulate gains over the next few years to help you achieve that target amount.

When you get closer to needing the money, move the corpus to a debt fund for safety of capital. The monthly SIP amount should be such that your equity investment itself grows to achieve the target amount net of taxes, while debt is simply for safety.

If you are planning to send your child out of the country for education it is essential to invest in a basket of algorithmically selected Indian and US mutual funds. You can invest in the US mutual funds via an international fund of funds. This hedges against the appreciating US dollar.

If you have less than 5 years to fund the education expense, then opt for a 50-50 equity and debt allocation. At the same time begin by investing whatever lump sum you can in equity.

Remember, equity investments need time to mature. In the short term, daily market volatility can bear negatively on returns. Hence, the sooner you start, the higher the chances of achieving your expected return. An early start also means lower monthly investment.

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Late identification of learning disabilities could leave some children behind in their academic and mental development – something early screening can solve…writes Siddhi Jain.

Indigenous research studies have estimated the incidence of Specific Learning Disabilities (SLDs) in India to be between 10-12 percent of school-going children. In remote populations and Tier-II cities where there is negligible awareness or service available for identification, these kids slip through the cracks in the system, says Dr Geet Oberoi, who has developed a nine-domain screening app for timely detection of learning disabilities in children.

As academic success has become highly competitive in present days, anything less than peak performance in schools could lead to mislabeling of a child, without sparing a thought to the reasons behind it. Oberoi, is the President of Orkids Foundation, the organization behind ‘First Screen’ app, launched last month that aims at early identification of children who may be at the risk of developing SLD (Specific learning disabilities). It also allows for early intervention well before the formal age of diagnosis at 8 years. It is a free android app, available in Hindi and English.

According to her, in India, SLD was recognized as a disability only in 2016, and unfortunately before that most children with SLD had an extremely challenging school experience with many of them dropping out and opting for open schooling. Many parents also opted for home schooling for their children looking at the stress and anxiety the schools were causing the children.

“In a considerable number of cases instances of other mental health issues like depression, bullying, defiance, eating disorders were seen emerging along with SLD and its effects in adolescence,” she told in an email interview.

How does timely identification and screening help? “It ensures the learning gaps of children are curtailed early and with intervention, before the gaps become too large to be worked with. As the children grow up, the academic pressure on the child increases and this may lead to children dropping out of schools and/or becoming susceptible to other mental health issues like depression, defiance, bullying and so on. Early intervention helps the children to be mainstreamed as fast as possible with a greater chance of finding less or no difference in performance as compared to the classmates.”

The pioneering app covers nine major domains, namely- reading and spelling, written expression, oral language, motor skills, attention, social skills, mathematics, executive functions and memory. The app includes a test of 90 scoring items with 3-point answers (yes, maybe, no/NA).

It takes 20-25 minutes to complete the test after which a visual feedback (as opposed to text) is given with possible recommendations for the future. Sub-skills of each of the nine domains covered are also given. For accuracy purposes, the test must be filled by a parent, or a teacher who has known the child for at least 6 months.

The free-of-cost app comes as a screening tool which is not diagnostic and thus does not label, but only screens to identify kids that may be ‘at risk’ is the need of the hour. First Screen would ensure that the valuable five years – between ages three and eight – can be utilised by providing extra support in terms of training and providing resources to the kids to help their learning curve.

Orkids shared that it has reached out to all different education boards like CBSE, ISCE, the State Boards as well as NCERT have been made aware of the app and its efficacy. “An ideal way forward would be to make screening a must for children in all schools at the age of four-five, so as to catch them young and ensure no child is left behind.”

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