The Hindu : Front Page : Paediatricians’ initiative to turn 100 city schools ‘child-friendly’

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Paediatricians’ initiative to turn 100 city schools ‘child-friendly’

Special Correspondent

KOCHI: About 100 primary schools in Kochi city are likely to be made ‘child-friendly’ by the next Children’s Day by creating basic amenities in the schools, reducing the burden of books and sparing the rod.

An initiative of the Indian Academy of Paediatrics (IAP) in partnership with the National Rural Health Mission and the Ernakulam district administration, the project aims to create a healthy environment for schoolchildren, both in the government and private sectors.

District Collector M. Beena told The Hindu that the project would cover all schools in due course, but as a first step only the primary schools were being considered. She had already spoken to school heads who would send down the message to the teachers and Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs). School authorities would call PTA meetings where the project would be discussed and implementation details worked out. “Change of attitude is the most important component of the project,” she said.

Ten commandments

The project involved 10 steps called Ten Commandments that the school authorities should take, said Dr. Sachidananda Kamath, president of the IAP’s Kochi chapter. These included: no physical punishment, no excess baggage, a minimum of four hours of games, safe drinking water, latrine, ventilated classrooms and health check-ups.

“No primary school student should be slapped or beaten with sticks,” Dr. Kamath said. Protection from physical violence is a child’s right, he said. Another important step was the reduction of the weight of the school bag. “The maximum permissible weight of the school bag is one tenth of the body weight of a child,” he said.

Dr. Kamath pointed out that one of the reasons for the increasing obesity among urban schoolchildren was the shrinking of physical activities and games at schools. So, the child-friendly schools would earmark at least four hours a week for games. Shortage of toilets was a major issue with most government schools. The lack of clean and hygienic urinals affected girl students more because in order to keep their bladders under check they do not drink much water. This leads to urinary tract infections. So, the schools should provide one urinal for every 60 students and one latrine for every 100 students.

Health check-ups would be compulsory at the time of admission and once in one or two years. Autorickshaws carrying schoolchildren would be asked to reduce the number of children to six to eight.

Dr. Kamath said most private schools had implemented many of the 10 steps. Dr. Beena said schools would be asked to implement the 10 steps in September-October. IAP teams would visit schools in October to make an assessment of the amenities provided. The list of ‘child-friendly’ schools would be announced on November 14, Children’s Day.

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