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Mauritius: Are Pre-Primary Schools Safe Enough?
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L'Express (Port Louis)
26 February 2008
Posted to the web 26 February 2008
Bilkiss Jaffaralli
Port Louis
Permission is given to a stranger to pick up a child from her pre-primary school. Mere words are enough to trust his/her credibility. The result may possibly turn out to be catastrophic. In such circumstances, are our children in a safe environment when left at their pre-primary schools?
Safe'n'Sound is one pre-primary school where the staff are very careful about the person who comes and picks up children.
Thousands of little children leave their homes daily, to get on the first stepping-stone of formal education- that of pre-primary school. These innocent and defenceless children are left in the hands of pre-primary education officers. These people do their duty- to educate our children! But what about their security? Certain schools do maintain high security levels in the pre-primary sector. They control who enters the school premises, who comes to pick up the children and have the names and contact numbers of responsible parties; everything is on record. However, some little acts of carelessness are often committed and these can have serious consequences.
One good example of security is that of 'Safe n Sound' pre-primary schools. Here, the requirements are quite advanced. "When filling in the registration forms, the parents are asked to give the names of the persons who will pick up the children and to explain how they are related to the child. The parents are also asked to introduce these persons to the members of staff so that they can easily be recognized. In cases where none of these people are able to pick up the child, the parents must inform the school in advance about the change. They must give the name and details of the person who will pick up the child. The person who comes must present his identity card. The staff will eventually phone the parents to confirm the identity of the person. The person will be required to talk to the parents and then the staff will talk again to the parents to confirm if he or she is the right person", says Mrs. Joseph, Director of 'Safe N Sound' pre-primary school.
Often, school vans are entrusted with the responsibility of dropping and picking up the children. In such circumstances, the pre-primary administrations have started to take security measures to prevent any mishap. High security and control are maintained over the issue of who has permission to pick up the children. The 'Organisation Mondial Pour l'Education Préscolaire' is another of those organizations which is maintaining high security for the children. "While formalities for admissions are going on, the parents must give the names and contact numbers of the persons who will pick up the children. They are also asked to inform us about the school van which will drop and pick-up the children. The school insists that the drivers come and leave the children in the classrooms, with the teachers,and not in the schoolyard as itis unsafe for the children",says Mrs. Roussel of 'Organisation Mondial Pour l'Education Préscolaire'.
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Such schools are to be taken as models and their rules and regulations must be adopted in other schools too. Pre-primary schools must now extend their responsibilities from purely educational priorities to a larger scale- that of welfare and security!
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