Where is everyone?
This applies especially to educational institutions. Being responsible for the children of others is a serious obligation. You don't want to leave anything to chance and will do everything it takes to ensure that the trust that the parents have given you is not misplaced.
Where is the boundary?
Travel and education go hand in hand, from school excursions in coaches within the Netherlands to the international flights that take students all over the world to their work placement positions. Due to the diversity of travel, educational institutions prefer to have such trips organized locally. A variety of suppliers are used for this. This is an excellent method for educational institutions based on the quality of the travel packages and knowledge about the preparation and coordination of travel that suppliers offer.
Don’t lose them!
However, I do wonder whether this method optimizes the ability to locate students and employees at all times. Strange things can happen and sometimes you need to be able to respond quickly. As an educational institution, how quickly can you know if people from your school are there? And if you already have this information, can you reach them and who is the contact person within your institution? ‘Somebody’ always knows where ‘somebody’ is, but who is this ‘somebody’? Whether they travel by bus, train, plane or boat, travellers must be easy to locate.
Duty of care within educational institutions
While I am not suggesting that things are poorly organized, an educational institution will regularly have to question whether its method takes sufficient account of ‘duty of care.’ The question remains of whether it has been optimally organized. Suppliers and educational institutions can work together to improve their methods. They should start with establishing that the most important factor remains the safety of, and thus the ability to locate, the student.
