Marketing of  Education by Schools

It’s a shame to see how schools have started advertising results of their school students in various newspapers to fluff up their images. It is done to attract more and more students in their schools which help them in earning more money.

The worst part is that newspaper agencies are even paid by various schools to get the news of their schools published on a regular basis. It is to grab the attention of the parents as well as the students of other schools and get them enrolled in their own schools by showcasing their good academic results.

Even if two students of a school get good marks, it gets place in the newspaper, while some other schools doing well for decades remain out of the way if they don’t get themselves in news or don’t have enough resources to project themselves in newspapers. It is merely a way to highlight oneself and get maximum number of students.

Due to this trend, a number of students get attracted by the praises showered for the schools in newspapers and take admission in it only to find out the glitches later.

It is not that highlighting one’s achievements is wrong, but doing it with the intention of fluffing one’s image doesn’t go with the morals one expects from an institution like a school.

The need of the day is to create awareness among parents as well as children against such tactics used by the schools. Students giving wrong information to boost their images and get more admissions should also be checked, and also penalized if found guilty.

School is an educational institution and its essence can only be maintained if people’s trust in it remains upheld and it is used as a place of knowledge rather than as a marketing tool to use education as a business.

A. Tan