Parents often discuss about children on WhatsApp groups in a way that school heads said can be damaging to some students.
The discussions that parents would earlier indulge in outside school, such as when they would turn up to take children home after class, are now happening throughout the day.
At times the conversation can be vitriolic, with parents not understanding that they are putting the children under the scanner, said a teacher.
“There have been instances when we have pulled up parents and asked them to withdraw from such groups,” said Terence Ireland, principal, St James’ School.
The purpose of such WhatsApp groups is to keep the parents updated about school activities, but some of the parents are misusing them, Ireland said.
At times the conversations target children who do well in academics or extracurricular activities and also those who are known to be mischievous.
“Say, if some children use foul language, the parents often put the blame on one particular child who is known to have used such language once or twice,” said a teacher.
In one school, some parents came together and demanded that three “boisterous” boys be shifted to another section, said an official at the school.
In another school, a parent of a Class IX boy complained to the authorities that other parents were saying in the WhatsApp group that teachers were favouring her son.
“It is easier to shoot a message than face a person when one is talking about someone,” said Nupur Ghosh, vice-principal, Mahadevi Birla World Academy.
There are parents who at times are driven to the point of feeling like exiting the group, said teachers.
WhatsApp groups of parents have been existing for long but they have become more common since the outbreak of Covid, officials at multiple schools said.
The existence of “official” WhatsApp groups for parents of the children of each class is an “unofficial” sanction for parents to have their own groups, said a teacher.
“A lot of communication happens in these groups and one feels they might miss out on information if they are not part of them” said the mother of a Class I child.
“It is a convenient communication tool for parents and the school but it has to be appropriately used,” said Amita Prasad, director, Indus Valley World School.
Parents, too, have become conscious of the discussions in such groups and are impacted by them.
“For example, if there is a disciplinary action against a girl or a boy, the issue is discussed in the groups and the parents of that child get impacted by it. A number of parents have voiced that concern as well,” Prasad said.
Such discussions are also a breach of privacy. “Nobody other than a child’s parent has any right to discuss the child,” said Prasad.