With several lakhs of schools spread across the country,
managed both by the State and the Private sector, it appears that the time is
ripe to reconsider the existing concepts of School Safety in the best interests
of our children. The rules and regulations that govern the schools as envisaged
in several of the rulebooks of the state governments are archaic and have been
designed many decades ago, when the schools were considered as temples of
learning and the entire infrastructure including the human, was considered as
representations of certain nobility. Over the years, thanks to the changing
social dynamics and its impact on the thought architecture of the people, the
schools have come under a number of external pressures and threats. Managing a
school body today is indeed a Herculean task, given the multi-dimensional
skills of management the people involved would require. Let us examine a few
important challenges the schools face with regard to the issues of Safety.
1. The infrastructure
Though the schools have adopted themselves to the modern
styles and concepts of infrastructure development, several of these concrete
structures, be it government or the private, are far from fool-proof safety
provisions. Broadly they can be classified under:
a.
Sites not conducive to the construction of
schools
b.
Quality of the materials used for the
construction
c.
Absence of coordination in designing safe
eco-systems required for the school
d.
Over-crowding of the students in the schools
due to absence of logistics in school admissions
e.
Poor designs for mobility of student
population in the school space
f.
Unsafe designs in terms of fittings like
doors, windows, staircases etc.,
g.
Absence of logistics in designs to manage
challenges arising out of disasters and inclement weather conditions.
h.
Poor management of playgrounds and unsafe
places for play and games
One could list
many other issues. Though there are rules stipulated to monitor many of these
challenges, but they are scarcely taken note of or compromised in several cases
due to various considerations. When accidents occur, we lament and become an
“Ouph” generation and then the issues continue to exist, no matter what are the
follow-ups of such accidents.
2. TRANSPORT
A number of accidents are reported across the country
relating to transports either managed or contracted by the schools Several of
these incidents occur due to bad maintenance of the transport and lack of
periodic checks about the fitness of these vehicles to transport the school
students. Compromises made with fitness conditions at the time of the issue of
licenses and fitness certificates often become the root cause of these
incidents. Despite stringent directions issued by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of
India, many cases of accidents have come to light due to non-compliance of
these directions or violations of the guidelines. One could hardly imagine of a
student traveling in a bus falling from the inside of the bus while traveling!
Use of qualified or untrained drivers, absence of support
staff, speeding buses, overtakes on roads, over-crowding on the buses are some
key issues which are still causing grave concerns. School authorities, on their
part, take a casual view of some of these concerns as these transports are
contracted from time to time and hence the entire process appears to be out of
their control or interests!
In several countries abroad, there are strict procedures
relating to the operation of these buses on road and overtaking of the buses ferrying
school students is totally forbidden and the license dismissed!
Apart from the buses, use of local vehicles which are
absolutely unsafe ferrying nearly double or triple the number of students is
indeed a grave concern. These are usually managed by the private operators and
contracted directly by the parents or local communities. The unimaginable
threat to safety in these vehicles is ignored by the parents until it becomes a
debatable issue. It is time that local authorities have stricter views on the
use and management of these vehicles in the larger interest of the younger
generation.
3. Safety of Health of the students in the
school campus
Schools are places where continuous personal interactions
take place among several hundreds of the learners. Hence there is a strong
possibility of viral and epidemic impact on health of these people. It is
therefore important that there is a periodic check on the school environment as
to the threats posed both on the individual and the community of students.
Some general issues that draw our attention are:
a.
School toilets: The
issue of non-availability of adequate toilets in schools proportionate to the
number of students has drawn the attention of the governments both at the State
and the Center. The absence of toilet facilities to girl children has been the
cause for school dropout as revealed by reports and this is more specific in
rural areas. The initiative taken by the Government in this regard is
commendable, but it does warrant greater momentum. However, even where the
facilities exist, the standards of maintenance of these facilities is far below
the basic requirements thus giving scope for health concerns. The issue is not
exclusive to government schools, but such standards far below normal exist even
in some privately managed schools. Absence of adequate water facilities,
sanitary kits and service personnel are some of the challenges the schools
face, which need to be overcome.
b.
Drinking water:
Drinking water, being one of the basic sources for possible health hazards,
needs to be provided with absolute purity. It is the exclusive responsibility
of the school managements to sort out the issues if any, with the local
authorities to ensure safe drinking water. Parent bodies, need to keep a vigil,
in coordination with the school management. Places of sources of water, their
upkeep and the supply routes have all to be examined periodically by the local health
authorities and continuous update taken.
c.
Food safety:
Students in several schools do bring their own food cooked at
home. However, long storage of food under hot weather conditions lead to their
decay and sometimes by the lunch time, they become unpalatable. In a number of
cases, the schools have a mid-day meal scheme supported by the government and
several reports have come to public attention with regard to the hygiene of the
places where these are cooked or their modes of supply to the students.
Questions have also been raised about the poor nutrient quality of such foods,
in spite of the expenditure incurred on these facilitations, thanks to the
intervening corrupt practices at various stages. School canteens, in a number
of schools do sell food items beyond the prescribed storage periods and they go
unnoticed. The sale of fast foods and their consumption by the younger
generation depriving them of the valued nutrients required for the body, has
generated health concerns. In many schools, initiatives have been taken to ban
the sale of these foods in the school campus. Safe maintenance of food in the
canteens, protected from access to rodents and insects is an important safety
requisite. Periodic inspection of the premises needs to be done to ensure a
safe environment.
d.
First Aid & Medical Attendance In a
school community with a few hundred stakeholders, it is important to have an
active first aid center to meet the emerging needs of the young children.
However, these facilities rarely meet the required basic standards in many
schools and even where they exist, access and speed of availability of these
procedures by the skilled personnel is largely absent. The need for a trained
nursing assistant to each of the schools along with the basic supportive
infrastructure cannot be ruled out.
As a community, schools also
need supportive emergency management procedures as students are susceptible to
injuries, fractures, food poisoning, digestive problems, breathing problems and
other concerns in respect of female children. In most schools, even stretchers
are not available to move the affected students from one place to another.
It is important to put in
place, a qualified medical management system in each school and to impart basic management
training procedures on time-to-time basis to the staff of the school. The local
health departments of the government need to have an eagle’s eye in such
matters.
Further, there are no
stipulated guidelines, and wherever they exist, there are no supervisory mechanisms
about handling of cases relating to viral infections and epidemics. The issues
are dealt more on fire-fighting mode whenever crises occur. Absence of standard
operating procedures or lack of information to the people who matter about
these SOPs, needs attention.
4. Mental
and Emotional Health of the students
The changing social dynamics
and the ever- increasing competitive urges for performance has put the school
going children under limitless stress. The parental expectations for
performance and the fast-paced curricular designs have deprived the children of
the age-appropriate joys, time for play, freedom for communication and
self-paced learning. Issues of Pre-maturation both at the cognitive and
affective domains have made children to continuously evaluate themselves and
proving their worth. Inability to sieve age-appropriate information, and
process the required information has created both mental and emotional
pressures. The increasing number of cases of mental depression and emotional
blackouts have desired the need for counseling at all levels of the growth
profile of the learners.
Excessive exposure to
romantic and sex related information through media based inputs have led to
emotional imbalances which need correction of the course from time to time. The
Government and educational agencies have started special focus to address these
issues through appropriate life skills and value education programs. Issues
relating to gender sensitivity, gender equity and gender neutrality are being
incorporated as a part of the hidden curricular agenda to enrich the mental
health.
Aggression, violence,
bullying and display of vulgarity in public domains have made educationists to
reset their strategies of pedagogy to effectively address and educate the
young. Peer influences do play a significant role in creating newer models of
role play and thus creating a need for effective conflict resolution
techniques. The Government is ceased of issues relating to Child abuses in
school campus and have initiated several regulatory procedures to deal with
this social disease.
Technological interventions
into life-styles have generated a new younger generation who spend more time
with the machines than with the people. Use, abuse and misuse of technology is
a matter of serious discussion in several fora. Speed of information is
creating newer styles of dealing with them, thus creating intolerance,
immediacy in gratification and restlessness. The emergence of virtual worlds
call for renewed modes of handling fantasies, with emphasis on re-articulating
our approach to the virtual environment.
5. Accidents and Natural
disasters
Fire accident in one of the
schools in Kumbakonam, Tamilnadu led to loss of several lives. So was the fire caused
due to a short circuit in the shamiana of a school day function in Rohtak.
Schools were washed away due to Tsunami in Andaman & Nicobar Islands. World
over, reports have come of school’s buses being tossed by Tornadoes, building falling
because of land slide, school roofs crumbling due to heavy snow falls and
collapse of buildings due to cyclones. Thus, schools are susceptible to
accidents and natural disasters like earthquake. Organizations across the globe
have been involved in reaching out communities to forewarn the schools of the
possibilities and the need for appropriate prevention mechanisms.
Unfortunately, such mechanisms are not adequately built into the procedures of
school management systems. It is high time, some of the prevention mechanisms
are made mandatory to limit the exposure of students to possible unsafe
situations.
6. Social aggression and
safe environments
Issues relating to
kidnapping of children from school campuses, mob attacks on schools, possible
terrorist attacks call for school readiness in meeting emergent situations. So,
schools need a well-conceived plan for action and implementation to meet any crisis
or emergency.
Cases of terror attacks,
violence, shoot-outs have been reported in many schools in United States
periodically. Though such acts of violence in school in the Indian context are
far and few, ‘preparedness’ for any eventuality is the call of the day. It is
always advisable to foresee situations and chalk out a plan of action to meet
the crises.
Schools, possibly, need to
work in cooperation with several other governmental and non-governmental
agencies. Thus “Safe Schools” becomes a broader based concept with the
involvement of several stakeholders.
Training of the school
personnel, both academic and administrative to manage specific challenges needs
to be incorporated as an on-going faculty improvement program in all schools.
Joint exercises with governmental organizations involved in such prevention
mechanisms could be done by the school both for creating awareness as well as
to trim the preparedness levels.
It may be an excellent idea
for each school to have a school-safety council that is in continuous
communication and partnership with other well-meaning social stakeholders.
The Future of School Safety
is a very challenging idea and might call for both commitment and conviction to
deal with.
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Note: G.Balasubramanian,
author, is the Editor-in-Chief of the magazine. His book “Safety Issues in
Schools” was published by NABET (National Accreditation Board for Education
& Training), under Quality Council of India.
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