Going by the adage, if you can't beat them, join them. St Andrew's , Bandra, has decided to allow schoolkids to bring mobiles to school on condition that they be kept in lockers, which they have to hire for about Rs 50 a year per student.
According to school authorities, phones will come in handy for students from class V to class X to call parents in times of emergency or the other way round. The school believes that students will be encouraged to keep the phones in lockers and not smuggle it to class and play games while the class is on or take pictures of the pretty teacher of romantic poetry. Or call up mom from class and tell her what a continuing drudgery history lessons are!
There are 72 lockers now available and each can store 5 or 6 phones. Students can pool resources to hire lockers and split the annual cost of Rs 200 per locker.
Fr. Magi Murzello, principal of the school, said, "We have noticed that whenever students bring phones to school, they either keep it outside in a shop or hide it in school toilets. This idea has been mainly initiated, so that students don't misuse mobiles in classrooms to play games or click their teacher's picture to upload on Youtube."
According to the principal, parents, too, have evinced interest in the locker system and many applications have been received. The management is willing to admit that phones are now an important source of communication
between parents and their children. Also, many students go directly for tuition from school and parents can keep track of their kids and see that they stick to the straight and narrow.
"The locker will also be helpful for us at the time of Board exams. The candidates who come for Board exams keep phones in bags and they get stolen. So this locker will be useful for these students also during examination time." Morzello said.
Students are expectedly ecstatic. Afroz Rehman, Std IX student of St. Andrew's School, said, "Most of the time students bring their phones, play mischief and innocents students are punished. Hence the school has come up with the really good idea of keeping the phones safe in lockers with minimal charges. I am going to apply for a locker."
Karanveer Dixit another student said, "I liked the idea of keeping the phones in the locker, Most schools or colleges don't even allow phones in the campus."
Prashant Redij, spokesperson Maharashtra Principal Association, said, "It is very good idea.
Because the crime rate has increased in the city and it is important to keep phones with children especially girls. If school have taken this initiative with the approval of Parents Teachers Association then they may not face any problem."
Though many would say that this is a modern approach to a perenniel problem, there are naysayers a swell. Jayant Jain , President of the All India Federation of ParentTeacher's Association, said, "I would not recommend that schools encourage children to bring mobile phones into the campus. Schools can provide landlines for students."
Either way, it can be said that St Andrew's is trying to dial in to the future.
