The tragic death on April 20 of Aakriti Bhatia, a 17-year-old class XII student of Delhi’s highly-reputed private sector Modern School, following an asthma attack during classroom hours, has prompted the Delhi state government to issue an advisory to all schools to recruit full-time or part-time medical practitioners. A set of guidelines is also being issued in consultation with the health department and private school representatives.
Delhi’s medical community has also taken note of these developments and has offered full support. “We’ve written to the government that our 14,000 member doctors across the city, virtually in all localities, are ready to assume responsibility. This will also help under-employed doctors earn additional income in the process,” says Dr. Naresh Chawla, president of the Delhi Medical Association.
According to Chawla, all schools (including government institutions) must maintain, at the very least, a full-time trained nurse, in addition to arrangements with a clinic/hospital/doctor in the immediate neighbourhood furnished with equipment such as an oxygen cylinder, nebuliser, a plinth and first aid room, life saving injections, emergency medicine etc. “Asthma, epilepsy, high fever, heat stroke patients and those suffering sports and other injuries, should have access to immediate medical care,” says Chawla.
The silver lining of the Aakriti tragedy is that it has focused official and public attention upon the abysmal medical facilities and emergency care available in K-12 schools. According to family members of the deceased student, the school authorities demanded a car from Aakriti’s parents to take her to hospital after she suffered an acute asthma seizure in school, losing precious time — which could have saved her life — in the process.
The Bhatia family’s anguish was exacerbated by the finding of a preliminary inquiry committee, appointed by the state government’s education department and headed by regional director Sunita Kaushik, indicating that the nurse on duty lacked basic training and that the school authorities had failed to provide proper and timely medication to Aakriti. The education department consequently directed the school to suspend the nurse and a teacher, who were prima facie responsible for mishandling the emergency situation. Moreover, the department directed Modern School to forthwith appoint a full-time medical officer as per the Delhi Education Act, 1973.
Curiously and typically, while the Delhi state government’s education department has taken stern action against the private sector Modern School, and the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) has advised the Delhi police to register a criminal negligence case against the school, it seems unaware that the 1,819 Delhi Municipal Corporation schools in the national capital region are even more ill-equipped in terms of clinics, medical equipment, doctors and nurses. The utter negligence and failure of the education department to practice what it preaches was highlighted when Shanno Khan, an 11-year-old girl student of a MCD-run school died on April 16 after severe corporal punishment was inflicted upon her, followed by complete lack of post-trauma care.
“Schools and teachers have to discharge an important role in ensuring the development and well-being — physical, moral, spiritual, and psychological — of their students. With minimal foresight, the Modern School incident could have been prevented. This tragedy calls for sensitisation of all those concerned with day-to-day administration of schools,” comments Col. (Retd) A.K. Suri, administrator of the Hissar-based Vidya Devi Jindal School, which is exemplarily well-equipped in this regard.
Yet it’s important to note that this advice is as applicable to government schools as it is to the small minority of private institutions.
Autar Nehru (Delhi)