CHENNAI: Not yet covered? These days, insurance begins at schools.

Going by the volume of business and the cautious optimism expressed by insurance companies, it looks as if group insurance for schools is here to stay.

The reason is simple: Schools that tentatively stepped into getting insured have found that an annual policy helped them provide assistance to students meeting with accidents, especially in their premises.

The headmaster of P.S. Higher Secondary School, B. Raghuveeran, recalls how they were able to give Rs.50,000 to the family of Petchi Muthu, who drowned in the sea off the Marina.

Mr. Raghuveeran says he would like to treat the incident as a one-off instance and steers the topic back to where the `Student Safety Insurance' policy matters most - medical claim.

"Students get into accidents all the time, either inside school or outside. We were able to reimburse the medical bills of a student who had a head injury after a fall during the lunch hour.

"Most of our students are not from affluent families. Reimbursement helps them," he says, adding that the premium is paid by the P.S Educational Society. The Vidyodaya group's Parent Teacher Association secretary V. Kalyanaraman has similar instances to share. "We started in 2004-05. Initially some parents raised questions as they had already taken policies. Now, after several compensations, many of them are convinced." According to S. Vijayakumar of Innovative Investment, a firm that is into facilitating schools and insurance companies, the tribe is increasing. "We started in 2003 after a survey about students meeting with accidents frequently.

Now we provide cover to 60,000 students from 35 to 40 schools and 18 colleges in the city in association with two insurance majors. So far we have attended to 30 per cent of the claims," he says.

The 2004 Kumbakonam school fire prompted more institutions to get insurance cover.

Companies such as United India Insurance and ICICI Lombard are looking into increasing their volume of consumers as well as exploring and identifying potential client base.

Parental opposition

Companies say many institutions do not show much enthusiasm citing parental opposition.

According to Oriental Insurance Company's Royapuram branch manager S. Mohan, many schools keep out to avoid parents' allegation about "increasing fee."

"We have to deal with parents, who have already taken insurance, asking why we were unnecessarily deducting money. But some of them, after getting the compensation, found the policy useful," says a school official.

Insurance companies prefer only "big schools" that make better business sense and who would be able to bring down the monthly deduction because of sheer strength.

The initiative still rests with schools considering a 2005 government circular that stated that children should not be allowed to drop out, especially in case of death of the parent/guardian in an accident.

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