Why our schools are unsafe for children
Unsafe at workplaces, public spaces and everywhere else, but certainly not the school is what you and I always thought. But a spate of crimes against children, from murder to rape to sexual assault, makes us rethink if the school is indeed a child’s second home. Crimes against children on campus, spread over a period of just the past two months, from Kolkata to Dwarka and Ghaziabad in the National Capital Region (NCR) have proved this premise wrong.
If we, as parents, are going wrong in some measure, the school management, teachers, principals, and attendants are to be squarely blamed for being the ground for such activities that could have been prevented. If only there had been more alertness, concern and sensitivity on their part.
In Kolkata, it was teachers who sexually assaulted a child, while in the remaining two cases in NCR, a classmate and fellow students were involved. The most gruesome was the assault of a four-year-old at an upmarket school in Dwarka, who suffered at the hands of a boy, almost of the same age as her, who could dare to do something as unthinkable and horrendous sitting on the last bench of the classroom because his teacher chose to leave the class, trusting an attendant to do her job.
At a Ghaziabad school, two boys of Class 5 assaulted a four-year-old in the washroom. In each case, the victim was barely four to five years old. When the school charges a hefty fee for ensuring that there is ample care, safety and security in its classes, claims that its teachers are trained, what makes such incidents rampant?
Why is there no collective action or concern to prevent such incidents that rob a child of her innocence and scar her for life?
After the sense of disbelief, initial shock, and widespread outrage, it is time to probe ways to prevent such incidents in schools and, if they happen still, what needs to be done to curb them. Why don’t we discuss the school’s role wherein negligence led to such an unfortunate event — that should be the focus of our discourse in each case. More than what happened and who did it, the need of the hour is certainly to look into how, where and why it could happen and the future course of action for all stakeholders.
The other daunting questions that remain unanswered are: Why are children unsafe on school premises? What makes them vulnerable? Is teaching them the difference between good touch and bad touch enough, or do the stakeholders - parents, teachers, school authorities and society - need to do a lot more?
Teachers and parents must take time out to explain the young ones where to touch and where not to touch other children so that their curiosity is answered and checked at the right time, without their actions taking a disastrous turn and wrecking havoc in another child's life.
Parents need to keep a close watch on the activities of their children, friends, and neighbours to check any untoward behaviour. Children's TV and mobile phone viewing habit needs to be monitored, too, to ensure they are not watching content on television, cellphones or other gadgets that may incite them to imitate what they see. Children tend to do it without realising its impact.
The other corrective measure that the school could take is to ensure the teacher and the assistant, if any, take turns to leave the class so that children are not left unattended even for a moment. One of the two must always be present in class. If not, another teacher should be deputed promptly to take their place. The school must not try to make up for the absence by asking an ayah to fill in for a teacher. If that is what they want, they should hire qualified ayahs, perhaps with BEds.
The buddy system should be developed in all primary classes so that a child steps out of the classroom with a friend, always, be it for going to the washroom or anywhere else. It will help the young ones develop a closer bond, trust one another and contribute to the development of healthy social skills.
The foremost concern is whether the teachers, who are made in charge of primary classes, are adept at their jobs or is it just a stop-gap arrangement between them and the school.
A primary class teacher plays the most important role among stakeholders in shaping young minds and moulding them into good people. What they teach, and how they teach it, has a lifelong impact on children. They should be warm, affectionate and playful so that a child, who has just stepped out of her/his mother’s lap and moved to a formal school, believes that he/she is indeed the second mother and can be trusted in all matters, be it a minor scuffle or a matter of assault.
The child should be confident of confiding in him/her. And if the child does confide, the teacher should immediately swing into action to help the child. If a teacher extends a hand of love and develops a close bond with the child, there will be no scope for any misgiving about the faith that a child — or parents — reposes in the teacher.
The teacher is the first point of contact for both parents and children, the coordinator and principal come second, and the management — which becomes draconian when such matters are reported — comes the last.
So, let the first point of contact be the best, so that second and third are not required. Trust, if won over once, will work wonders for a child’s growth and help him or her evolve into a confident person later in life.
Schools across the country need to be sensitised to handle such matters with empathy; offence is the best defence, but it may not be the best option in such cases. Rather than save their skin in times of lapse whatsoever, school authorities — and its management and teachers — should try and focus on working to help the victim.
The child must be the first and foremost concern for them. They should work together in helping the child recover from this trauma, and not increase her/his suffering by hurling ridiculous charges. An insensitive reaction to such an act on its premises during school hours will not bode well for the children who come to study and not get abused — not by other children; unimaginable to say the least.
The worst is police apathy; in most cases, it fails to book these so-called up market schools for negligence, for letting a heinous incident happen in the first place. It is more pertinent because a child leaves the custody of her/his parents and is in the care of school authorities when such a crime is perpetrated against him or her; the onus of safety and security rests with the school and not the parents.
"The persons who are managing the school will be equally responsible for the child as the actual custody is of the school authorities,” says Section 75 of Juvenile Justice Act of 2015.
But why is there reluctance to apply this section in heinous crimes where a child is concerned? Why are the schools getting away in most cases? Is it because they have the money and influence to manage all the ends, unlike a victim's family who is left to fend for itself in fighting a long battle with little or no help?
Of all the recent cases of crime against children on campus, the Dwarka incident has the gravest consequences.
Does the school realise its role in scarring a child for life? The child has been affected in more than one way and at more than one level. This incident highlights how schools should act and react when such an incident happens on its premises or is reported. What are the preventive measures that should be in place?
Let's not forget the case of the Class 1 student who was found dead inside a water tank at Ryan International School in South Delhi's Vasant Kunj in January 2016; it was, perhaps, an alarm bell for all of us to act, well in time.
We failed, and the murder of Pradyuman Thakur, a Class 2 student, on the same school's Gurugram premises was the tragic result. Likewise, the authorities need to take stringent action against the school in Dwarka, because if they do, it will send a strong signal to the fraternity that schools need to be more responsible, and if they aren’t, let's brace ourselves for witnessing something gorier in the days to come.
Let's not just stand and stare but do something to ensure that our children are safe in their school’s premises; if we don't, we will have no other choice but to be sorry, always.