On Monday, the buzz at the schools was back with students returning to classrooms after a nearly two-year break forced by an alarming Covid situation. Nervous excitement prevailed within students as they marched in wearing face masks and made their way to their desks in hushed tones. The eagerness to return to physical classes was so overwhelming that some schools struggled to maintain protocols of distancing. As much as there were concerns among parents, the worry lines on school management and teachers were showing.
While the focus was on students on Day-1, the consent forms became a subject of a bitter controversy with the tone used outright reprehensible and seeking to absolve the school of any untoward incident on the campus. It is absurd to fix responsibility on parents in a situation where the school is supposed to act as guardians on the campus, ensure Covid appropriate behaviour, put protocols in place and create a safe environment. Asking parents to sign a pre-drafted undertaking, and take responsibility for the consequences arising on the campus only means that an attempt is being made to shirk away from responsibility. One of the clauses in the consent form reads: I shall be personally responsible if my child is infected with Coronavirus and I shall not blame anybody in the school for such an incident.
Using such language in a consent form reflects complete insensitivity to the situation and students. The role of schools is to provide a proper learning environment and offer balanced learning opportunities revolving around their moral, intellectual, physical, social and aesthetic well-being. Schools have a larger role to play in nurturing students into responsible citizens. By enforcing such an undertaking, the schools are merely trying to safeguard themselves against any untoward incident and are seeking to take away the parent's right to question the school management in case a student contracts the virus or falls ill.
Ensuring the safety of students while at the campus is the responsibility of the school, and shifting this responsibility on parents makes no sense. It only highlights the fact that schools are either not confident or cannot guarantee a safe and conducive environment. Giving consent to send wards to school, taking responsibility for providing face-masks, sanitiser and assuring personal hygiene are areas where parents come into the picture, but it is baffling how a parent could take responsibility for the child’s safety on the campus. What examples are these schools setting by isolating the student with such indurate posturing?
If schools are not ready to hold responsibility for students, they should have written to the Education Department. It is an issue between the department and the schools to be settled. Don’t hold parents responsible for a failure in the education system. They have shown eagerness to pursue learning and careers of their wards even during testing Covid times with a supreme thought of the scholastic and mental wellbeing of their wards. Schools must refrain from shrugging off their responsibility.
