On that day, B. Mohana and K. Saraswathi, teachers at a Chennai Middle School on Sholinganallur-Akkarai ECR Link Road, had their greatest responsibility waiting for them outside the classroom, in fact outside the campus.
They would be “pilots” steering a well-structured machinery. They will be overseeing the execution of a well-rehearsed process. However, as it involves the safety of schoolchildren, they would approach the task as if it were being undertaken for the first time.
A majority of the students at this Greater Chennai Corporation-run school on ECR Link Road reach and leave the school by foot, their homes located on both sides of the arterial road.
Here’s how some of the students took the first steps of their journey back home, that day as also on others. It is school-leaving hour. A bunch of boys carry two sets of cones. Each set of cones is linked by one rope running through them. In two units, the boys take positions on both sides of the road, and with practised ease, barricade both sides, putting the threaded cones to their intended use. They have brought the traffic to a standstill. The motorists are not complaining: some of them are watching the unfolding scene with awe. The students are playing traffic marshals to the hilt. The watchful eyes of these two teachers sweep across the landscape. Every day, two new pairs of eyes (drawn from the teaching staff) oversee this operation. The sense of urgency is pervasive. While the barricades were placed with impressive speed, the pathway created by them is also used equally fast. The children crossing the road do so swiftly, some of them urged by the teachers to quicken their steps. In around five minutes, the crossing is over and the traffic released.
The school has been following this road-crossing ritual for a long time, but it is proving more helpful than ever before, given the temporary and frequent traffic changes that come about on account of Metro Rail work.
Mohana notes that this initiative runs smoothly with the support of the school principal. Every day, two teachers are tasked with overseeing it. Saraswathi remarks that the school had to undertake this exercise as the foot overbridge is not convenient for students and parents to cross over.
