Mumbai: Support staff get lessons in handling school kids

The group after completing the training

As the popularity of pre-schools grows and more and more parents send their kids there; the focus is on the support staff of maushis, ayahs, security guards and peons. Early Childhood Association (ECA), a nationwide non-profit organisation, that works in the sector of pre-schools and day-care, has developed a training module for support staff.

An important aspect of it is to train support staff about appropriate behaviour around children, especially as many cases of child molestation in schools were reported recently.

ECA has held one session in the city this week and another was held in Pune last month; there will be similar sessions in other cities and states. At the end of the training modules, staff will take a small test of multiple choice questions. ECA gives certificates to those successfully completing the test.

Talking about the need for such training, Swati Popat Vats, president of ECA, said, "The incidents of inappropriate behaviour with children are rising. The support staff is a class of employees which is never trained regarding how to behave around children. How to work and interact with children, understand them, different laws related to children such as POCSO etc. is included in this training module."

One such session was held in the city this week at Witty World School in Borivli. Support staff from around 12 schools took part in it. Chaitali Parekh, centre head at the school, where a training session was held, said, "If the support staff are given professional training, definitely the children are in better hands."

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