THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It is as if they have been waiting for somebody to listen to them. Or how else could the overwhelming response to a complaint box be justified? Within a week of its launch, the complaint box installed at the Cotton Hill Girls Higher Secondary School here has seen 25 letters being dropped into its tummy by the girls here. From the silliest of complaints to serious queries that have put the teachers in a fix, the letters are manifold in nature. It is as part of the ‘thalodal’ project implemented by the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) with the help of IT@school and Mahila Samakhya Society that the complaint boxes are being installed in girls schools. It is one of the services rolled out by SSA as part of setting up help desks in schools across the State, and the complaint boxes are to act like tools helping the girls to open up. Vijayalakshmi S, a student of standard seven, is all thankful for the new facility. ‘’The help desk has turned very useful for us, we can disclose our problems to it. Even though we are told to express ourselves to teachers, friends and family, there has been an inhibition in most of us. That has been broken. Another advantage is that it ensures anonymity. So, without mentioning our names, we can courageously pour out our pangs into the box,” she says. “Usually, when we share secrets to our friends, it spreads like wildfire. Everyone comes to know about it. This make us shrink into a shell and all our sorrows remain brewed up inside our minds. Once the ‘thalodal’ box was installed, we got a place to anchor our problems. It has provided us an assurance that our teachers will hear and console us,” opines Ummul Bushra, another seventh standard student from the school. The complaint box will be checked once in a week and teachers are expected to find remedies to problems faced by the students. That could be with or without the support of external involvement like counsellors. The service of a psychiatrist or psychologist is also to be employed. “Starting from family problems to classroom issues, students have a lot that worry them. Many fear to discuss it with others as it might lead to untoward developments in their lives. This box, therefore, stands as an epitome of secrecy too. As it’s only a week old, we are yet to explore its broad applications,” says Fathima Shahanas, convener of ‘Thalodal’ at the school. The wide response has, however, amused and impressed the teachers too. They have suddenly realised that it is a much bigger responsibility than they had thought it to be. They are making plans to ensure participation of parents by providing an awareness class into the various benefits ‘thalodal’ could impart to the students. According to Sivakumar K S, president of the ParentTeacher Association (PTA) in the school, “the box has given an opening for students who have problems, about which the parents might not be aware of. We do not know as yet how we are going to tackle some of the serious complaints that have come our way,’’ he said. The PTA and the school authorities had opened the box on Tuesday and scanned the letters. But they are yet to take action. For the time being, the school would make use of a counsellor to let more girls speak out their problems.
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