By Mukesh Sharma Doha 13th September : A furious reaction from parents was greeted by the tragic death of an Indian kindergartener in the school bus in Qatar the day after the incident occurred on Sunday, which was also the child’s birthday.
The child from Kerala was believed to have died from extreme heat after the school bus personnel failed to notice the child who might have been sleeping, and then secured the vehicle after parking the vehicle in the open, according to media reports.
Four-year-old Minsa Mariam Jacob was a pupil of Springfield Kindergarten in Al Wakra the town in the suburbs of Doha, the capital.Doha.
Local media reports say that the driver as well as the attendant to the vehicle discovered the girl when they returned on the bus four hours after.She was taken to a hospital, but was not revived.
Minsa was the daughter of Abilash Chacko and Soumya who have two kids.
Disdainful of what is perceived as a lack of care from the school, many parents expressed their outrage over the tragic incident.
“The bus employees responsible for the horrifying incident should be sentenced to death and the management accountable,” said an angry father on a forum online.
Another mother, Abdelaal Abdullaal Khalil Abdelaal Abdelaal Khalil, an Egyptian national with four children who study in the Indian school in Doha said that this incident isn’t the first time in the country, and therefore it’s even more tragic.
“After the driver has inspected the bus, the driver should go through the exercise.In this way , such unfortunate events can be avoided,” said the lawyer from Alexandria who has lived in Qatar for more than 15 years.
A young Indian student of an CBSE school suffered a tragic death in 2010 in similar conditions at DPS-Modern Indian School in Doha.She was in a cell in the school bus following falling asleep while heading to school.
An experienced Indian teacher at an CBSE school in Doha said it was an act of complete negligence of the school of the school where the child died.”Our school operates a procedure of calling parents to discover the reason for absence prior to classes begin.Alternately, schools could make it mandatory that parents contact them via email or WhatsApp message prior to classes starting in the event that they have a child absent.This will notify parents and school authorities when something unusual occurs,” said the middle-aged educator under the an ad hoc basis of anonymity.
Children need to be taught how to manage with such situations in the event of such, she added, showing an educational video in which a child from school makes use of the bus’s horn to attract attention to herself after being locked in the vehicle.The clip has been making the rounds of social media platforms here.
The Qatari Ministry of Education and Higher Education has announced it is launching an investigation into the matter with the “competent authorities”.In expressing regret over the incident, a statement released by the Ministry said it would impose the harshest penalty depending on the results of the inquiry.
The Minister of Education and Higher Education, Buthainabint Ali Al Nuaimi paid a visit of condolence to the family of the deceased on Monday.
According to family members of the Chacko family they hope to bring the body of the child to India after all formalities have been completed.
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