Drastic Measures to help School Zones
Zones around schools across the world have traffic issues. Every problem is unique but the solutions proposed are generic and not community specific. Let’s address a specific situation — the zonal problems around my school. When the parents/chauffeurs/public transportation drivers drop children off, there is no common orderly system that is followed which causes chaos in the morning. The main reason for traffic congestion is the metro work that is happening in our area. Cordoned off areas for digging change overnight with no warning. Each morning introduces a new obstacle race. As a result, students are arriving late to school, which causes loss of time for learning.
In the past we have tried having seniors come and help out with traffic after the police came and gave a session on road safety. Similarly, we had parents diverting traffic in the evenings which resulted in heated arguments. Finally last month a solution was provided, where we had a staff member try to divert traffic.
The main cause of downfall was due to people not respecting rules and ignoring traffic regulations. There is a systematic problem in my city (Chennai), where no traffic rule is followed which causes civil disobedience. Since the streets surrounding my school are narrow and in an old part of town, there are many houses, apartments and commercial locations.
To solve the problem of students coming late, we want to first send an email to the parents, bolding and highlighting information and the route set by the police for the 2 morning and 2 evening staggered timings. The email will include the consequences for not following the proper rule. Next for a week we will have the police explaining to parents/chauffeurs/public transportation drivers how to move around the school. This one week will be an opportunity for parents to learn. To keep the habit and momentum we will have policemen for a month standing, monitoring and helping us.
Now if the rule is disobeyed, to correct it parents will be sent an email and a total of 3 warnings given. Next, if those do not work which effectively has earlier in the year but not properly executed, we will have the child sent back home and marked absent. If there are still parents who are not following the rules their child will be suspended and marked absent which results in lack of minimum attendance, resulting in the student not being allowed to take finals and therefore not graduate.
