Chennai schools award merit certificates to students who carpool

Updated on: Thursday, June 09, 2011

In March this year, four and half-year-old Ira Mathew got an extra certificate along with her report card - for being a conscientious carpooler. She was among several of her school mates at Lady Andal School who were recognized for doing their bit for the environment.

"We had a really good carpool going - six children in the mornings. Mothers would take turns every week to drop the children. It was easy on the parents and fun for the children. And it's nice that the school recognised the ones who made an effort," says Ira's mother Mansi Gandhi.

Located in the high-traffic Harrington Road, for a year now, Lady Andal School has been trying to make a conscious effort to reduce pollution within the school as well as ease the traffic situation. "First, we introduced a system where only those who carpooled were allowed to park inside the school," says Lady Andal principal Shalini Pillay. "The car had to have three or more children in it," she adds.

After that the school fine-tuned the system and decided that carpooling students would be given a merit certificate "recognising them for carpooling." "We widened that circle to also include children who brought their lunch from home. We found that a lot of parents were making a second trip to school at lunch time just to give their children hot food. Now, we award those who bring food from home in the morning itself," says Shalini.

Now with the steep petrol prices and schools set to reopen soon, parents are busy trying to get their carpools back in order. Mansi, for instance, says that this year since all the children from her daughter's carpool have either left school or moved to higher classes where their timings have changed, she will have to do all the pick-ups and drops this year. "But next year, my daughter's school timings will change too and I can get back into the carpool," says Mansi.

For Anisha Nanavati, who carpooled to school as a child, it was what she calls a "natural progression" with her two children, especially considering they both start school half-an-hour apart. "We have five children in the carpool," says Anisha, who lives in Kilpauk, 13 kilometres away from Sishya School where her children study. "I have two carpools going so I end up picking up and dropping the children only twice a week, once for each. I couldn't think of it any other way."

Times of India

Chennai schools award merit certificates to students who carpool

More Education news