A Child Just Drowned: Will We Revisit School Infrastructure Now?

How the recent drowning of a young private school student reminded a mother of her own child’s ordeal.

My heart sank when I read recently about a child’s death at one of the most well-known private schools in the capital. The child had died apparently due to negligence on the part of school management. And the latter, instead of offering solace to the parents, had tried to hush up the matter.

It reminded me all too clearly of the ordeal I had been through with my own child’s school.

I have been fortunate to study in one of the best private schools in the country – Delhi Public School, Mathura Road (in India the term “public school” is a misnomer). The school had good facilities, including a clinic within the school premises. Naturally, I took basic medical assistance in ALL schools for granted.

Therefore, when – on transfer – I admitted my child to a leading private school in Adyar, Chennai, I was in for a shock.

One day, I received a call from the parent who picked up my child after school (we shared a carpool) – saying that the child was burning with fever. Apparently, the class teacher had seen the child looking uncomfortable around noon, but thought it best to wait till school was over (around 2 pm).

I was flabbergasted. My child was 4, and I had entrusted the school with her welfare. I felt really let down. As it turned out, the child had dengue and needed extra attention. This was in 2002, and a massive dengue epidemic had claimed many lives in Chennai and elsewhere.

Eventually the child recovered, but I thought it my duty to take up the matter with the school authorities. I wrote to the class teacher, asking her why the school had no basic medical care to offer, and why she hadn’t called me. She had no answers and asked me to meet the Principal.

I took an appointment, expecting an apology. Instead, what I got was this tirade – “Your child has been seen using the senior school bathroom. This is sheer indiscipline!” I was shocked, and educated her about the reason for my child’s “indiscipline” – the fact that the KG section bathrooms were stinking, never cleaned properly, and unusable.

I also pointed out that mosquitoes were breeding around the bathroom, which meant the school should take extra care to prevent epidemics. My argument was rewarded with one arrogant reply: “Our school is what it is. There are hundreds of parents waiting for admission. If you don’t like it, you are free to take your child out”.

With tears in my eyes, I could only reply, “You know what? I will.”

Why We Desperately Need to Discuss Far More Than ‘Curriculum’

Thanks to this terrible experience, I landed up in what I feel is one of the most extraordinary schools in India – the Krishnamurthy Foundation School (The School).

It is the only school I’ve come across, in my experience of living in three metros, that follows the Yash Pal Committee recommendations in letter and spirit.

It was a place where, at lunchtime, the Principal and staff would eat the school’s own organically grown food, with the students, on the floor. There would be regular parent teacher interactions every Wednesday – under a banyan tree. And report cards would read like psychological studies of a student, detailing likes, fears and strengths.

The Yash Pal Committee on primary education (“Learning without burden”) submitted its report to the Human Resource Development Ministry in 1993. Its terms of reference were of course, limited to issues such as reforms in curriculum.

23 years later, terms used in the report, such as “joyless learning” still ring true.

Things seem to have gotten worse with teaching shops mushrooming in towns and cities. Schools are too busy chasing the curriculum and publishing Board results in the media, to bother about things like the safety of students. The number of students seeking admission, countrywide, is so high that demand far exceeds supply. Parents prefer to send their children to private schools, even if they can ill afford to do so.

The least a parent can expect is that the child comes home safely from school, every single day.

The Sad State of Private Schools

Most private schools are run as trusts or societies, and their income is exempt from income tax. This means that any surplus income over expenditure should be invested back into the school. Yet that is hardly the case.

In most of these schools (other than a choice few), classrooms do not have a power back up; children are left sweating in the peak of summer whenever there is a power cut. There is an urgent need to teach disaster management to teachers and students. And despite repeated epidemics and advisories issued by the authorities, there is scarce attention given to controlling breeding of mosquitoes.

The news story of the young child drowning in the water tank of one of the capital’s well-known private schools, is a horrifying reminder of the fact that there is a crying need for an all-round audit of schools. This should include safety standards – and not just the curriculum.

It’s high time that steps are taken to regulate this sector and ensure that unscrupulous and/or apathetic players are weeded out.

(The author is a Commissioner of Income Tax at Delhi and former Director (Films) at Ministry of Information&Broadcasting, GOI. The views expressed in this article are her own.)