FRASER: Calculators, smartphones banned at Brampton private school

BRAMPTON–There are two things that are banned at Guru Tegh Bahadur International School – calculators in math classes and smartphones.

Tucked away in the corner of a Sandalwood Pkwy. strip plaza near a Metro grocer is one of the top scoring school’s on this year’s Fraser Institute Elementary School Report Card, which opened its doors in 2015.

Principal Sanjiv Dhawan believes smartphones distract students’ and teachers’ attentions and students – from kindergarten to Grade 12 – are required to keep their devices off and in their bags during class. As for calculators, students aren’t permitted to use them until Grade 8.

“Every calculation is done on the mind,” he said. “It develops the understanding and strengthens the mind.”

Three teachers split up the private school’s 11 math classes during the week. The first teacher focuses on multiplication tables without the use of calculators, the second focuses on using the Jump Math strategy, which teaches instructors to simplify concepts so students can understand them. The third teacher works with students on more complex mathematical word problems.

The private school’s small population of 120 students means kids get more attention from teachers if needed. Many come from a South Asian background, so Guru Tegh Bahadur tries to focus on secondary language courses besides English, such as Hindu, Punjabi and Tamil, to allow kids to connect with their families at home.

When it comes to literacy, Guru Tegh Bahadur focuses on grammar using specialized worksheets in early education. They split the scope of teaching between two teachers – the first, emphasizing on vocabulary and grammar and the other, reading and writing.

“From kindergarten, we start telling students meanings and making them write sentences and we focus on good handwriting,” said Dhawan. “From Grade five, we start focusing on using an Ivy League vocabulary list. Normally, that’s in Grades 11 and 12.”

Dhawan adds that because tuition at the school is quite expensive – $8,750 a year – the school has to “keep on its toes” to be accountable to parents. Each month, they have parent-principal interviews to show how the child is progressing and improving. Teachers are also available after classes and on Saturdays for extra help.

“We are not on taxpayers’ money,” he said. “We are dependent on parents’ money and we are accountable every day for our work. Our teachers discipline and hard work is the thing we value most.”

The school also has a partnership with Brampton’s YMCA that allows students access to facilities for a monthly extracurricular activities day, where they can take swimming lessons or play sports and they are given a membership they can use with their parents at other times.

Guru Tegh Bahadur is among 15 schools that scored a 10 on the Fraser report card. Though the list is a “top 10,” a number of private, Middle Eastern or South Asian cultural schools have made this year’s ranking.

“Private schools congregate at the top of the list and there’s a reason for that – and that’s regardless of whether they’re religious or non-religious,” said the Fraser Institute’s Peter Cowley.

“There’s a much stronger incentive at independent schools to ensure their kids are acquiring the knowledge to do very well. It would be very wrong to characterize that accumulation of schools as being mostly Muslim or Sikh. Really, what we’re seeing here is – if private schools want to keep their parents, they’re going to have to show good results.”

jyuen@postmedia.com