Parents are endangering children’s lives at school

Sep 19, 2013 Letters

Dear Editor,
Most times whilst taking my daughter to Zeelugt Primary school, parents (mostly mothers) could be seen in the school compound in groups and when the school bell rings, they would converge where the children line up. They are so close that if one of them decided to stretch their hand out they could touch the children in the line.
It is disgusting to witness. The former headmistress used to face a lot of criticism when she requested that they remove. I don’t know what the parents hoped to achieve with their actions, but when the children entered their respective classes the parents would still linger in the compound during the school sessions (the whole day).
I observed the new headmistress being bolder than the former and demanding that they exit the compound – much to the annoyance of the parents. They would then go and wait at people’s houses or shops nearby until break and lunch time.
I often wonder if they are so dedicated to stay at school for an entire day, whether they don’t have work to do at their homes.
Apart from Zeelugt Primary, the same could be seen at Leonora Primary, Meten-meer-Zorg and other schools.
These parents don’t realize, or they don’t care, but their presence there serves as a distraction to the children, because in most cases, the children could see their parents and would occasionally glance at them, or the parents’ action would draw their attention and invariably distract them from their school work. It’s high time the Ministry of Education enacts rules that would prevent this madness, because they sometimes could endanger children’s lives… which I will explain.
When the school term started, a first grader from Meten-meer-Zorg Primary requested to use the toilet and the teacher sent the child. When the child didn’t return, she (teacher) sent a few children to located him and they were unsuccessful, she then looked herself and subsequently reported to the head teacher.
As they were about to go to the child’s home, the boy and one of his parents returned to the school. The child had left through one of the open gates. The parent started to behave unmannerly to the teacher, but the matter was resolved with the head teacher’s assistance. After that she started to padlock the gates, much to the annoyance of the “liming parents” because they cannot be in the compound or enter and exit as they feel like.
During the robbery incident on Monday, vendors from the primary school noticed two males exited a green car and tried to enter the school, but realized the gate was padlocked. One of the vendors informed the men that they should “go to the other entrance and a teacher will open the gate”. Whilst going to the other entrance, the men saw a police vehicle approaching and they abandoned the vehicle they were in and ran to the seawall.
I saw no mention of this in the newspapers, but if the head teacher wasn’t so adamant in padlocking the gate, the two men who happened to be robbers could have entered the school and only God knows what might have happened.
I am appealing to all parents to desist from wasting time at school compounds and distracting students from their studies and endangering all the children’s lives. This would also make it possible for all the school gates to be padlocked after school sessions commence.
Sahadeo Bates

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Parents are endangering children’s lives at school

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