THE CHANGE HAS COME

• By: Arun Banerjee (AB), Chairman and Managing Director BoB-PRIMAAN International School (BPIS) An endeavour by Umabel Educational Foundation (UEF).

8.'Yes, change has come': (Medical Insurance for every child)

• Children and play are complement to each other, hence things happen and they get hurt. When it happens, it is not the matter that how they got it but how to get them treated as soon as possible.
• In an accident, or a medical emergency, the most important factor is, how faster an affected child can be administered treatment, and it is crucial.
• In present system when ever a child gets hurt, the school calls up the parents/ guardians and hand over the child to him / her. By handing over the child to the parents the school shoulders off the responsibility.
• To me, No. this is not a correct practice. The school is the best place to get collective support for such incident. They are educated community of the society; school has number of vehicles at their disposal to move the child faster for medical care. The reason they do so is, they do not have the power of handling the money and authorization from the management to handle the situation hence the system calls the parents in.
• Each child is dearest to his/her parents’/guardians’ heart. Parents get totally disarrayed due to the unforeseen happenings. Has any body considered from where he/she is going to come to school, how much time it would take, from where he/she is going to manage the fund to support the treatment, what about the job he/ she is handling in his/ her capacity.
• In some cases there might be only one parent available in the city where the school functions. There might be some parent who have just shifted to the locality for the schooling of their child, he/she might be new to the local community lay outs for the emergency, might not be known to any good hospital.
• Above all, though at the end, they are the party to foot the medical bill but they might need some time to get adjusted to the cruel reality, that has just happen to their life. Even though he/ she manage everything, still it would take longer process for an individual to handle an unfortunate eventuality then a collective effort by a school authority.
• It has happened with me, with my child; hence I have decided to have the system corrected by myself. I have insured each child in my school for a sum of rupees Fifty thousand (Rs.50,000/-), from the time a child leaves the door of his/her house for the school and returns back to the door of his /her house.
• The management takes care of the child right up to the hospitalization and arranging all the treatment related help to a needy aggrieved family through the administration with the back up of medical insurance.
• It is well known to our society that a insurance company does not wish to do any cover for the little kid bellow 5(five) years, leave aside I am the third party not the parent/guardians, but my endeavour and persuasion has paid the sweat and good wish has prevailed. I have got the case regularized with the Insurance Company and got each child covered for the assured sum annually.
• By doing so I made sure that each child is looked after in an eventuality and a concerned parent is help to certain extent.

9.'Yes', change has come': (Play with a free mind)

• If we do not give a child time to play, from where the sports man will emerge?!! Thus a country of 1.2 billion but has sportspersons that could be counted on the fingers. I blame the education system for that.
• By sending the home work from the class room, back to home, it is killing the inspiration of a child to move out of the home and take up sports.
• By the time a child reaches back home, the child is already loaded with the prolonged classroom tutorial and practice, the child somehow drags himself/herself to the home, where he/she is asked again to finish the home work and self study. Only then a competitive parent allows the child to go out to play. By the time the child could finish the study load, the evening descends and the child misses the game.
• This monotonous activity kills the child’s inspiration and hence the child only enjoys virtual sports that are on the television / computer games.
• As in my school there is no home work of any kind to a child to carry back home , my system allows a child to be set free from the bondage of carry back home study. Hence both the parents and the child is happy and he/ she can start playing from the word go from the school when the bell rings.
• My system also encourages child to come back to school happily instead of feared or scared, as the general perception is in the society due the assigned home works.

10.'Yes, change has come': (No more frustration and a despair)

• Let me take you the road, as we all know and have surely traveled in every school season. It is a night mare for the parents/ Guardians to manage the study materials and schooling gears (Viz. Text books, Exercise notebooks, supportive accessories, school uniforms, dress materials, shoes, socks etc.) from the market place or the vendors as directed by the school administrations.
• We all know and in deed you all will agree with me that, on that very time it is really a pain to manage both ends meet i.e. managing the work place demand and the market search for the required schooling materials.
• Most of the cases it is nothing but frustration and a despair in the mind of the parents /guardians, pondering a way out to every year’s mess in the name of schooling by the present system.
• In my school it is totally done with by the school administration. The school manages all the need full items for a child to handle the learning needs.
• As all the things from A-Z for a child is looked after and managed by my school’s administration, it let’s the parents/guardians have a piece of mind and feels free from the bonded duty to run from pillar to post for the various schooling needs.

11.'Yes, change has come': (Proper care while eating food)

• When you buy a food box (short break & Lunch), most of the time parents do buy better quality latest product available then in the market, to show case their status and strength of money power.
• Alas! Does the parent know that, the little child would not be able to open it on time and secure it before the school bell rings to go back to class? For a little child, opening a box is a night mare, given the type of the box the parents buys.
• There is no one to make sure that, the dearest child’s hand is washed properly or the location where he/she is going to eat is clean. So the matter rolls down like this, the very child whose betterment and well wish is foremost in the mind of a parent is neglected in the school.
• Does the parent know that, the child in his/her heart is crying for not being able to open the box that his/her parents has enthusiastically bought?
• Above all when he/she opens the box, there are number of chances that the child gets an opportunity to compare his/ her food with other children around him/her. That’s makes the child more disturbed. The child learns about the society, where his / her parents may or may not stand in strength of money power. It is not a healthy way to grow.
• Most of the times child brings back the food box uneaten or throws away the food before entering back home due to scare of parent’s anger.
• I would not be wrong to say that, it is in the child hood days of the child that most of the children fall sick and parents visit doctors very often.
• I have personally witnessed these happenings in my home, in the life of my children and hence decided to do away with the food box system. I have opened up mandatory catering system in the school. Here all the children eat in the community dining hall, under the careful guidance and observations of each individual class teachers & catering staff.
• In my school community dining hall, at one sittings there are 160 children, in one go, sit and eat and there are at least 10 (Ten) staff around.
• Those staff makes sure that the child washes their hands well and learns how to eat by themselves. They are taught to eat in a group with out any kind of deferential treatment.
• While the child gets cleaned properly, eats what ever quantity he/she wishes and most importantly on time and at regular time table makes them healthy and happy. Undeniably though chances are there but they usually do not fall sick very often comparing to their counter part in the regular schooling system.
• To maintain the standard of food the child eats, and behavior of the staff while handling the children in the community dining hall, I made it sure,no one of my staff brings his/her food in the school. Instead all eats the same food in the same hall with the children at the same time. To keep my system on line, I have ordered special food to be made in the school kitchen for the staff member who is under medical advice.
• By providing the food for the staff I have cut down the gossiping time during the lunch break of the staff and deliberation about various recipes and cooking method. You will agree most of the time teachers only get up from the food table in group, while the bell for the break time is over; they take more time to enter the class room after the break period.
• Dining at the community dining hall cuts down all the time and increase the functioning of the staff members.
• There is also no rush-rush, hurry-hurry, run-run situation at the home front of each of my staff as their food is taken care off here in the campus.
• To maintain the quality, quantity and the variety in the menu, I have not hired any third party to give the service in the community kitchen, instead employed the kitchen staff by self.
• By doing so, I have eliminated the possibilities of greasing the palm of the authority in the administration and a chance of holding the management in a point of call 'a no where to go negotiations situation'.
• As it is an in-house management for the betterment of all, hence staff decides the menu for each day. The menu is cyclic in nature and is changed every 6 (six) months.
• Would not be an exaggeration to add here that, even the Board member of the management and the visiting guest eats the same food in the same hall.