In fact, boarding schools do have a lot of advantages. The boarder can avail himself of all the facilities which a day student cannot. Teaching hours can be adjusted to give the child sufficient time for games. Children of the same age group are together. Hours have to be observed for meals and various other activities. The students learn both self-reliance and independence and become capable of looking after themselves. Often they may have to take decisions and make choices and these help them mature earlier than they may have done at home.
There is nothing in this world which is an unmixed blessing. Boarding schools have many disadvantages. At a tender age children are denied family care and affection and are deprived of maternal care. Often when they have to decide things for themselves, they may feel lost and unhappy. Boys are grouped together into dormitories and are thus unable to have any privacy or freedom. Many teachers and housemasters are harsh and strict and not understanding. More than all there is the attitude of the parents. Many parents think of boarding schools not as institutions of education but as corrective institutions. When they feel that their child has become wayward and does not devote sufficient time to studies or does not obey them, they think of a boarding school.
Many of the children who are sent there may be children who have