When in need of help, school students in Orissa just dial a helpline

She received serious injuries after her right hand fingers got trapped in a window of her classroom. Though she was in acute pain, the school authorities reportedly failed to take timely action. The little girl lost two fingers.

Upset over the development, another student of the school dialled a toll-free number and registered a complaint with the “School Student Helpline”, a unique mechanism set up by the School and Mass Education Department of the state government to address the problems and grievances of the students and their parents from across the state.

The higher authorities in the School and Mass Education Department immediately swung into action and directed the district inspector (DI) of schools, Kendrapara to investigate and file a report to the department. On the report of the DI, a teacher of the school was suspended and the headmistress was transferred.

In a government-run school in capital Bhubaneswar, a lady teacher arrived in the class 15 minutes late. By that time, some of the students had left the classroom and were playing outside. The angry teacher then punished the students by inflicting physical torture on them. She did not even spare a student suffering from asthma.

A girl student conveyed the incident to the department through the helpline. Her identity was kept secret as per her wish. When the local DI investigated the complaint and found the incident to be true, the teacher was immediately placed under suspension.

The School Student Helpline, perhaps first of its kind in the entire country, has already been a huge hit among the students and parents alike since its introduction. “Right from the day one since the system was first introduced more than two months back, we have been flooded with complaints and grievances from the students and parents,” said Sanatan Panda, one of the officials manning the Helpline.

The centre remains open for 12 hours everyday between 8 am and 8 pm everyday. Apart from personnel to note down the complaints, the department has also appointed a Grievance Redress Officer (GRO) to supervise the system. Personnel manning the centre include a few lady employees for proper receipt of grievances from girl students, particularly complaints relating to sexual harassment.

The helpline is open for students studying in private schools too. Parents are
particularly happy over the introduction of the new system as the grievances are now directly landing with the higher authorities in the department. “Earlier, complaints were suppressed by district level officials, who were helping the law violating teachers and others to get away without being punished. However, with the new system it will be difficult for wrong doers to go scot-free”, said Pallav Das, a parent whose son is a class seven student at a government run school in capital Bhubaneswar.    

However, there are a few others, particularly among the teaching community, who feel that the government should remain alert about the misuse of the new mechanism. “The system is no doubt unique and student friendly. But the government should also keep an eye on vested interests who would be trying to put innocent teachers in trouble to settle their personal scores by misusing the new system”, said a senior teacher of a government run school in Bhubaneswar who did not want to be quoted.

Meanwhile, the School and Mass Education Department is contemplating to put the toll-free helpline number in prominent places in all the government and private run schools across the state to familiarise the students with the new system.