Bengaluru: Schools help children cope as parents fall ill

BENGALURU: With Covid-19 affecting an increasing number of families, several schools are stepping forward to help children cope with the situation and continue their education. They are offering counselling and sponsorships to students whose parents test positive, apart from assistance in finding hospital beds and medicines.


St Michael High School, Kothanur, said it had provided a 50 per cent fee waiver to two students who lost their parents to Covid-19 this year. The waiver was given to four students last year. Nine students with only one parent have availed scholarship.

“The class teacher and

school counsellor

speak to affected students regularly. The counsellor also speaks to the other parent or family members and offers guidance on the phone,” said school director Sonya Chacko.

Four students of

Delhi Public School

Bangalore North have lost a parent. The school plans to train teachers in grief counselling. “Our teachers and counsellors call children regularly. Unlike earlier times, we cannot hug the child or hold him near to us. In the case of younger kids, we speak to the surviving parent or grandparents. We have also built a support group with the child’s friends,” said principal Manju Balasubramanyam.

Counsellors associated with several schools are collaborating to start a helpline and a platform where students can seek support. “As many as 47 school and child counsellors and 40 college students from master’s programmes are part of the forum. We are setting up a new helpline for students,” said

Nooraine Fazal

, founder of

Inventure Academy

.

Schools part of the effort consider helping children tide over the pandemic a shared purpose.

Susheela Santosh, director of Vishwavidyapeeth School, said meals for the needy, including students whose family members had been diagnosed with Covid-19, were being prepared in its boarding facility’s kitchen. “The parents of two of our students were hospitalised. The students were alone at home, with neighbours checking on them. After we were informed, we started delivering food to them. We also provide food to police stations and people in need without taking delivery charges,” she said.

Institutes are also supporting faculty members who are losing their dear ones. “It has been our policy to support children if they lose any of their parents while studying with us. Now, we have extended the help to our teaching staff. We have raised money for two faculty members who lost their spouses,” said M Srinivasan, founder,

Gear Innovative International School

.

Manju of Delhi Public School added: “The school is a community. We help parents get beds, medicines and other support. Our alumni are also actively involved. All of us are fighting this together.”

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