The resumption of in-person classes at schools after a gap of two years has thrown up a challenge: sending kids home.
Drivers of pool cars are yet to get familiar with the students they are ferrying to school and back home. For school guards, recognising parents after a gap of two years is proving to be difficult.
The unavailability of escort cards or bus badges for students who travel by school buses is only adding to the chaos and confusion.
Several schools are yet to distribute the cards. “Students are yet to receive badges from bus operators. They now mention bus routes or bus numbers during dispersal,” said Rekha Vaisya, academic coordinator of Salt Lake Shiksha Niketan.
Several schools reopened for the new session last week. Around the time classes are over for the day, the school gates remain crowded with guardians and pool car drivers. All are in a hurry to pick up children.
“On the first day it took us 45 minutes to conduct the dispersal for three batches. Earlier, it would take us no more than 15 minutes,” said Apala Datta, principal of Birla Bharati.
Last Friday, two children were playing in a park adjacent to Salt Lake Shiksha Niketan after class and a third boarded a wrong bus.
Panic spread as parents heard that three children were “missing” from the school.
There were frightful episodes in other schools, too, in the last few days.
In one school a child was slipping out of the gate unattended. A guardian stopped the child.
In another school, a child who was in the queue at the gate went missing. The child was later spotted on the playground.
School administrators have also been out of practice, thanks to the long period the campuses were shut because of Covid, and they need time to get used to the pre-pandemic system, parents said.
“Most of the old pool car drivers have gone. The new drivers and children do not know each other that well and it will be a tough job to get the system back in place,” said Anjana Saha, principal, Mahadevi Birla World Academy.
To streamline the process, schools are devising new methods.
At Indus Valley World School, section-wise dispersal is being conducted. “Parents who drive usually come earlier to get a parking space. Naturally, they have to wait for close to 30 minutes to fetch their kids,” said Amita Prasad, director of the school.
The congestion at the exit gate on the first day of the new session prompted St James’ School to send out a note to parents that not more than one guardian shall accompany a child.
“On the first three days our gates got blocked. More teachers than usual were deployed at the gates but they did not expect such a crowd to turn up,” said Jessica Gomes Surana, principal of Loreto Convent Entally.