Children’s safety must be a priority

It’s time to set up a nodal agency to monitor school security

The murder of an eight-year-old student of Gurgaon’s Ryan International allegedly by a bus conductor has pushed authorities to release a raft orders to ensure a repeat does not take place. On September 14, the Central Board of Secondary Education asked schools to conduct a security audit within two months. The Haryana government on Tuesday issued its own set of safety guidelines. All schools will have to mandatorily install CCTV cameras at entry and exit points, in corridors and staircases, library, infirmary, auditorium, inside elevators, dining halls, sports rooms, computer labs, entrance to classrooms, toilets, sports fields, swimming pools and areas where buses are parked. The Delhi government too had made police verification and CCTV schools a must in all private and government schools. The Mumbai Police is expected to soon issue guidelines for schools.

The Ryan International case is not a one-off incident, as Priyank Kanoongo, member-RTE and Education at National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), told HT. It is a national crisis. “A student drowned in a swimming pool at Bhopal. Such incidents are happening everywhere, in urban and rural schools. But it happens more so in private schools because there is a lack of vigilance,” added Mr Kanoongo. A major reason for this, according to him, is a lack of parents’ intervention in private schools, affecting accountability.

While new guidelines are good, the real problem lies in implementation and monitoring of these schools. While CBSE has come out the rules with security, it is not responsible for monitoring them. It is up to the state governments to do so. But even in the government there’s no single-point authority that looks into security in a wholesome manner. While the fire department looks at fire clearances, the police will look at security and the transport department at schools buses. This multiplicity of authorities and lack of regular review of security arrangements embolden unscrupulous schools management to cut corners, which puts children at risk.