Eurokids - A Franchisee Operation
Earlier, I had written a review for the Eurokids school that our daughter went to. Overall, she seemed to have a good time and liked her time there.
Having said that, I wanted to share one of our “not-so-great” experiences that might give a complete picture about Eurokids.
This branch of Eurokids where our daughter went to school, had arranged for an annual day function at a nearby hall at the end of the academic year. Overall, the program was well planned and executed. However what I found strange was that they had mentioned that cameras and camcorders were not allowed into the hall. What a pity, considering how excited parents are about having their younguns on stage and getting it all on camera! Anyway, while I didn’t take mine, there were other parents who brought in theirs and were eager to take pics when their kids came on stage. Isn’t it only natural?
The bizzare part was that the franchisee owner was trying very hard to make sure that nobody clicked any pictures or took any video. He asked parents to stop taking pics and was at it through out the show. The downer was when he actually shouted at a parent, snatched his camera, and threatened to not return it. What the!!! Come on, yes you asked people to not bring in their cameras, but they did. Please understand that they are excited and want to capture some moments from their child’s life. This parent then had to request the owner for the camera. The owner gave it to him with a strict warning! I guessed with all the goings-on that they wanted to sell us ‘their’ pics. I have said it in my earlier review too about how much I missed taking pics during occasions. And as expected, when the school was closing for the year, we were asked to buy a few things, amongst which was a CD of pics. They could have done this even if they had allowed the parents to take their own pics. If they had made it a rule for us to buy the CD, what were we going to do? Not buy?! But to ruin a wonderful day, especially being the organizer, is so not nice. We had observed this behavior during another organized event too, the sports day.
While the franchisee run pre-school chains have a lot going for them, in terms of recognition, awareness of their existence amongst the masses, a set curriculum that seems to be really nice for the kids, etc, they are also run like a franchisee operation. Period. Of course, while my experiences are true with respect to this particular franchisee unit, this may not be the case in another branch. It all depends on the set of people running a specific branch.
As a conclusion, I must say that my daughter loved her teacher and her months at Eurokids. But, hub and I were pretty put off with all the discourteous behavior on the owner’s part! The owner could have definitely displayed some suaveness. If you are looking at a specific branch, please do ask parents who send their kids to that specific branch to get a feel of the people running it.
And a word of advice to Eurokids if I may - Please screen your franchisee applicants carefully. I really think you have something nice going on here with the current set-up. If only you can pick your people carefully, much the same way you pick your teachers. The teachers are also trained well before they can start their job at one of your schools. How about something similar for the owners too? After all, as parents, we interact with them the most.
For my earlier review of Eurokids, please go here.
Filed under: preschool, kindergarten, schools, pre-school, nursery, R2I, Children, eurokids, Bangalore
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This is a typical issue in India sometimes(I would say Bangalore where I have spent 7 years!)…everyone wants to make money out of everything. thanks for sharing this experience, it will certainly help people to be more vigilant while choosing a particular branch ..but do they have a choice most of the time
There’s a surprise everytime awaiting me when I visit your space ! This is some great work you’re doing here, in terms of reviewing and providing info for us parents with near-school going age children.. Thanks !
In my son’s pre-school too, during the Annual day we were constantly discouraged from using the camera/camcorders. (This was not a EuroKids though, but Its the same everywhere.)
2 things that made this exp not so frustrating are urs on that day -
1. The teachers were very courteous with the announcement.
2. The parents (whose kids were on the stage) stood up to take the pics etc. This made it very difficult, if not impossible for the others at the back to see and enjoy the show. So I kind of agreed to the requests being made by the teacher that day.
However, what was very disappointing was when we bought the picture CD from the school. There were hardly any pictures (just 24) and none of the kids individually in their costumes !!
As you said this is a money making gimmick… but to shout at a parent is inexcusable…
[…] Having said that, I wanted to share one of our “not-so-great” experiences that might give a complete picture about Eurokids…. Read More Here […]
This school is doing this to sell photos and earn money. Who knows, if ur daughters photos are really wonderful, they may sell the same CDs to some website owners or blogs etc., to earn even more money. They want money and for that they even didn’t let u take photos of ur own daughter.
Hi Friends,
I would like to share my experience with EuroKids pre-school (Brookefields area, Whitefield).
To be true, it turned out to be bad experience.
When my Daughter was 2years 2months, I prepared her for going to the school. She was very intrested and happy to go out and enjoy with other kids. Surprisingly on first few days including first day she didn’t cry, she was ready to leave me and happy to be part of school. Eventually she didn’t want to go school or play with other kids. This put me down. She infact started crying to go to school. We were very worried about this act of her. When we approched the teacher in Eurokids, she started with complaining about my kid. This irritated us. As a teacher we expected her to take care of our kid to be part of school activity and group activities in the school. When teacher complains this shows that she was not capable of doing her work. We also observed that teacher shouting with the kids which is not an healty environment.
We discontinued my daughters toddler section from midterm itself. She is at home. She took few months to be out of fear. Now she is back to normal and enjoying back with other kids in the park.
We have took the admission for Playgroup in Deans academy. This is refered to be good school system.
Any reviews of DEENS ACADEMY? I am planning to put my son aged 2.5 years in a pre-school in whitefield area. I have enquired about the Deens Academy. The details are-
School hours: 4.5
Fees: INR 20,000 (one time) and INR 50,000 per annum.
Is it worth paying? Any reviews of Deens Academy or alternate playschools at whitefield would be highly appriciable.
Thanks Parents- Lovely Parenting
I am also not happy with Eurokids preschool.The picture they show you is completely different and sad.The teachers are also not trained .Dont go by the brand name and other schools are much better.
Hi,
My kid is 2 years old, and i am planning to put my daughter in a preschool mostly Eurokids next year. I wanted to know how is the The Eurokids branch in Nagarbhavi 2nd stage, bangalore.Please reply to my query as i am a little demotivated to put my kid in Eurokids after reading the reviews.
Hi, i am the same Shilpa who has writtent above. Now, i have put my daughter in Euro Kids and i am very happy . The teachers there are very good and caring. My kid loves going there.