Beyond marks – What should parents look for in a school preparing children for 2035
Choosing a school for a changing future
Indiadailyupdate.com – For many Indian families, selecting a school has traditionally centred on board results, examination performance, discipline and an institution’s standing in the community. Those measures still carry weight. Yet parents are increasingly considering a broader question: will the school help a child thrive in a world of work that may look very different by 2035?
The scale of this decision is immense. India’s school system serves about 24.8 crore students through 14.72 lakh schools, as recorded in the Economic Survey 2024-25. For parents, the choice is not simply about a campus, facilities or a familiar school name. It is also about the kind of habits, confidence and capabilities children develop over many years.
Artificial intelligence, automation and digital tools are already reshaping workplaces. Some existing occupations will change substantially, and new roles will emerge as technology evolves. No school can predict every profession that today’s students may enter in the 2030s. It can, however, equip them with the ability to learn continuously, assess new situations and respond thoughtfully to change.
Academic foundations remain essential
Future-focused education should not be mistaken for a rejection of academic rigour. Children need a solid grounding in mathematics, science, languages and social sciences. Knowledge remains the basis for sound judgement, creativity and meaningful problem-solving.
The challenge is that qualifications alone do not always guarantee an easy transition into work. Azim Premji University’s State of Working India 2026 highlights this complexity: unemployment among graduates aged 15 to 25 remains close to 40%, while the figure is about 20% for graduates aged 25 to 29. At the same time, graduates tend to earn more across their working lives than people without degrees.
The lesson is not that education has lost value. Rather, education and employment now have a more complicated relationship. Young people may need more than subject knowledge. They need to apply ideas in unfamiliar settings, communicate clearly, cooperate with others and adapt when plans do not work as expected.
Looking beyond the curriculum label
Families often compare school boards and curricula first. These choices matter, but they do not reveal everything about a child’s daily learning experience. Two schools may teach the same syllabus while creating entirely different classrooms.
One setting may rely mainly on textbooks, notes and tests. Another may cover the same material through debate, experiments, collaborative assignments, projects and practical examples. Neither approach removes the need for study and assessment. The difference lies in whether students are also invited to investigate, explain, test and revise their thinking.
The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 identifies analytical thinking as a major core skill. It also highlights creative thinking, resilience, flexibility, leadership, collaboration, problem-solving and technological literacy. These are not separate from academic learning; they are often built when students use academic knowledge rather than merely reproduce it in an examination.
Questions that can reveal classroom culture
A school visit can be more informative when parents look beyond brochures and infrastructure. Observing lessons, speaking with teachers and asking specific questions can help reveal how learning is organised.
Parents may want to consider whether children are comfortable raising questions, whether they are asked to explain how they reached an answer, and whether group work has a meaningful place in learning. It is also useful to understand whether students get chances to tackle problems independently and whether mistakes are treated as part of improvement rather than as reasons to stop trying.
These details can show whether a school is developing student agency: the capacity to take ownership of learning, make informed choices and navigate uncertainty. The OECD Learning Compass 2030 places importance on agency, competencies and the ability to handle unfamiliar circumstances. That focus is relevant for children likely to experience repeated technological and career changes during their adult lives.
Technology should support learning, not replace it
The arrival of AI has made future readiness a prominent part of school conversations. But more screens or devices do not automatically create better learning. Technology is most valuable when it helps students research a topic, create something new, test an idea, work with information or understand a difficult concept more clearly.
Children also need guidance on using digital tools responsibly. As AI becomes easier to access, schools have an important role in teaching students to question what they see, verify information, evaluate sources and protect personal data. They should learn the difference between using technology to support thinking and relying on it to supply every response.
The goal is not to turn every child into a technology specialist. It is to help them become thoughtful users of technology: people who understand its possibilities, recognise its limitations and remain accountable for their own judgement.
Preparing children to keep learning
By 2035, the strongest advantage may not be expertise in one tool or familiarity with one career path. It may be the confidence to learn new skills, work with people who think differently and persist through uncertainty. Schools cannot remove the unpredictability of the future, but they can make children better prepared to meet it.
For parents, that means balancing academic expectations with a close look at the learning environment. Strong results matter, but so do curiosity, communication, resilience and the freedom to explore ideas. A school that combines intellectual discipline with practical learning may offer children something especially valuable: not just preparation for the next examination, but the capacity to continue growing long after school ends.
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