Kolkata: The Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations ( CISCE ) has directed all its affiliated schools to provide insurance cover to their students, especially those who will be taking part in the 64th national school games later this year. The insurance coverage is mandatory for all students participating in the national competition.

The CISCE has suggested to its affiliated schools to introduce a Rs 1 lakh combo insurance plan covering health, accident and travel for the participating students.

If implemented, the universal coverage plan would be one of the largest insurance schemes covering more than 2,000 ICSE schools in India with over 2.5 million students. There are 359 schools affiliated to the council in the state with around 5 lakh students.

“While insurance is recommended for all the students of your school, it will be mandatory for the students participating and representing the Council at the School Games Federation of India (SGFI) 2018-19. It is one of the preconditions that the students participating in SGFI must be insured. This is checked and verified at every venue where the games are held," read a circular issued by the council secretary, Gerry Arathoon, to its affiliate schools on Tuesday.

While the rationale behind providing insurance coverage to students participating in the school games is to ensure that parents do not have to bear the financial burden in the case of an accident or mishap, either during travel or on the track or field at the games, Arathoon has argued that numerous extra-curricular activities and sports in the calendar of individual schools as well as commute from home and back also leave students vulnerable to similar incidents. In Kolkata, there have been several unfortunate accidents involving students.

Rammohan Mission School principal Sujoy Biswas said the mandatory insurance requirement for students participating in SGFI Games made sense so that any cost undertaken by parents in an exigency could be recovered by insurance claim. “Between 2000 and 2005, our school had an accident policy in place. Even death of an earning member in the family could have led to an insurance claim. However, it was discontinued since there weren't many claimants,” Biswas said.

But the proposal for universal insurance coverage in schools was met with surprise and did not go down well with many school officials. The primary concern is the cost of insurance premium and whether parents would be ready to pay it. “This will be an additional burden for parents. Schools don't have the financial wherewithal to bear this cost,” a school principal said.

The principal of a prominent south Kolkata school felt the argument for introducing insurance was compelling. “There have been accidents involving school students on the city streets. Many of them were in pool cars. If insurance is introduced, parents will have to be conscious and verify that the pool car service is licensed so that the claim is then entertained by the insurance company,” he said.

