The response we must build – as a school

If you are part of a school, ask if all the support staff in the school have medical insurance for themselves and their families? Can an educational fund be created for the children of the support staff to avail scholarships? Is there a pension or retirement fund for those who spend years supporting the school in its everyday functioning?

We may also have seen the inability of some students or teachers to access the online teaching-learning that is happening. How can this be supported? What alternatives can be created and tried on an ongoing basis to ensure that tech-friendliness, non-conventional methods and independent learning skills are strengthened.

 The school is also always surrounded by a neighbourhood that may have vulnerable groups in need of the basic facilities. How can we use the school premises and facilities (after school hours) to give shelter, to run a community kitchen, to give basic health care, to create a space to study – to those who are vulnerable and struggling? How can food vendors be supported or acknowledged as members of the school community? How can students of the school be organised to form volunteer teams to support the senior citizens in the neighbourhood(s) living alone? How can we become a focal point of the community to hold and keep the community together in times of celebration and crisis?

 It is also crucial to embed in our curriculum, in our classrooms, in our conversations a sense of justice and to nurture within ourselves, this sense of community so that the children in our schools grow up better equipped to deal collectively with such situations, in their future.