15 Ernakulam schools open 'honesty shops', sells stationery items without any storeowners, no CCTVs
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The 'honesty shops' opened in nearly 15 schools in the Ernakulam district of Kerala as part of the Student Police Cadet (SPC) project have gifted some valuable lessons on trust, truth, and integrity to students.
There will be no salesperson in these shops and neither will they have a shopkeeper present. Students can choose items they need and drop the money for each item inside the collection box kept on a table. The price list of every item is displayed next to it.
The shops are open mainly for students up to Class 12.
Teachers have stated that students have shown honesty till now since the money collected matches the items purchased.
"The objective of the honesty shop is to provide students a chance to experience the virtue of honesty. Though our school has CCTV facility, we have switched off the camera pointed towards the shop to instil confidence among the students. The honesty shop has mainly school-based items such as notebooks, pens, pencil boxes, erasers, chart papers, and so on," said Anoob John, Community Police Officer at High School, Ramamangalam.
Cynthia Paulose, Community Police Officer, Chowara, said, "I was initially curious as to how the students, especially the younger ones, were approaching this. I noticed they were calculating the amount for the items they were taking. We got really good responses from students."
The students were also asked to write stories and poems about honesty before the shops opened.
Student police cadet, an initiative launched in 2008 was started to inculcate better civic sense among students. The project also aims to mould them into responsible citizens who will react positively to the demands of society.