The progress report is the most dreaded document in a student’s life. Now, it is the turn of parents to fear the same.
A government school in the city’s suburbs has come out with a novel programme called Kutti (small) Police where schoolchildren rank their parents according to their road safety discipline and submit a report card to the district collector.
The programme was launched in the Government High School in Padiyanallur in Tiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu on Thursday and it will be adopted in other government schools in the coming days. Under the programme, the school teachers will give a report card to the children to assess 12 rides they had with their parents in a month.
Safety first
The children will check if their parents are following road safety norms including giving way to ambulances, not using mobiles while driving, wearing seat-belts, helmets, honking, overtaking the right way, and other rules,” said K. Madan, Gummidipoondi Tahsildar, who initiated the programme along with the Confederation of Indian Industry’s Young Indians.
After assessment, the children will hand over the report card to the teacher and it will be forwarded to the district collector. “The parent with good marks will be rewarded and those who score poorly will be provided road-safety training,” said Mr. Madan.
A pilot programme conducted at the Panchayat Union Primary School, Kavaraipettai, a month ago, showed change in the attitude of the parents. P. Tirupurasundari, the school’s headmistress, said, “Some are now wearing helmets and avoid talking over mobile phones while riding.”
While class four and five students prepared the report card on their own, teachers visited the houses of class one and two students to keep track of parents who follow traffic rules. About 200 students are now involved in the campaign.
The school now plans to involve children dressed as traffic police to create awareness on road safety at junctions on arterial roads. “We will monitor if our teachers are following the norms too,” said a girl student from the Padiyanallur government school, with a grin.
Source: The Hindu
