Private schools in Chennai mull student accident insurance scheme

Accordingly, if a child is gets injured in school or at home, he or she is covered in the schools’ medical insurance scheme. It also provides financial assistance to parents of students who lack medical coverage. Ranging from Rs 50,000 to one lakh, the insurance allows students to claim clinical treatment and hospitalization expenses. 

Lalitha Thiagarajan, Principal, DAV Senior Secondary School at Mogappair in Chennai said that her school is signing for group student’s personal accident insurance policy since the past few years.

The insurance scheme of DAV school states that in case if any child gets hurt, essentially any kind of accident, whether at school or at home, the parents are entitled to claim the medical expenses incurred either as an out-patient, or due to hospitalization of the child. This policy provides 24 hours round the clock insurance cover to the students against accidents.

The student’s insurance scheme in private schools was mooted after various requests from the parents teachers associations.  “We have sent circulars to several schools in our locality for implementing insurance scheme to students,” S Kalaivanan, a member secretary of a parent teacher association said.

In addition, private schools initiated this scheme after the example of Tamil Nadu government, which had recently implemented a scheme, which provides financial relief to students, who meet with unexpected accidents while in schools or on school related activities.  Students studying in government, government aided and local body schools are covered under this scheme. 

A senior official from School Education Department said that the government is considering to change the existing accident compensation scheme for students studying in government schools to group insurance scheme. 

“Through the new scheme, hospitalization benefits could be availed by the student. We are talking to various hospitals regarding the scheme”, the official added. 

Though government do not charge any amount from the parents, some private schools collect some minimal amount ranging from Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 per year along with the fees.