Parents relieved, schools too welcome move

GURGAON: Parents in the city were relieved at the deputy commissioner's directive on school safety. Shekar Vidyarthi's order that every school set up a safety committee has gone down well with parents, who are anxious after horrendous incidents concerning young girls in schools in Bangalore and Kolkata.
"I am very happy that the government is taking steps to address our children's issues. We are extremely worried, considering what happened in Bangalore and Kolkata recently," said Anita Modi, resident of Sector 7 and mother of a 13-year-old boy.
Subhash Singh, father of a seven-year-old girl studying in Heritage School, was concerned about the implementation of the order. "It is a good initiative. However, it is important to implement it properly. For instance, one can still see school buses violating traffic rules, despite strict directions from the government. I hope that this initiative gets implemented properly," said Singh, a resident of Ridgewood Estate.
Vignesh Gautam, father of a pre-schooler and resident of Sector 47, said, "While the DC's idea is good, what he missed out is to make CCTV surveillance and deployment of women security guards compulsory in schools." Meanwhile, the schools' reactions were mixed. Private schools, most of which already have safety mechanisms in place, applauded the initiative while government schools felt that the directions would be difficult to comply with, given the shortage of staff.
Sumit Dargan, principal, Middle School, Pathways, and Peeya Sharma, principal of Ryan International School, Sector 40, welcomed the move calling it a great initiative. Sharma said, "One committee is not enough for the safety of children. We can't hold 10-15 responsible for the security of 1,000 children in a school."
The principal of a government school, who didn't wish to be named, said that having separate staff for a committee was not feasible.
"The aim is to motivate children to raise their voices. Although we already have a committee and a complaint box in the school, we will act in accordance with the directives," said Sheel Kumari, principal of Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Jacobpura.