HYDERABAD: A day after the Prohibition and Excise Department issued advisory notices to 26 city schools asking them to introduce sensitisation programmes in their curriculum, blame game between school managements and parents has begun. Schools, while asserting the importance of sensitisation, washed their hands off the matter stating that monitoring children is the role of the parents.
Indus International School, told Express that campaign against substance abuse has been always been a part of their curriculum. “We have zero tolerance for drug abuse and earmark a day to sensitise our students,” vice-principal Mohammed Rizwan said. While denying that the school received any notice, he said that the students spend a limited time in school.
“Parents should give limited money to children and know how they are spending it. They should also be discouraged from giving smart phones to their kids. In fact, it was through WhatsApp that the peddlers stayed in touch with kids,” he said.
There are others like Geetanjali School at Begumpet, who are undertaking sensitisation for students and parents. “We conduct sensitisation programmes on a routine basis. We had conducted one recently on cyber crimes too,” said Maya Sukumar, principal.
The crackdown revealed that over 100 students were clients, some as young as 13-14 years. Most of them are from affluent families and students of international schools. Ashish Naredi, a parent, and a member of Hyderabad Parents School Association (HPSA), said that the drug bust should serve as an eye-opener for parents. “These schools take pride in their elitism. Kids feel it is cool to do drugs,” he said. N Ramesh, the district education officer (DEO) could not be reached.