Schools wisen up with safety drive to tighten student security
Close on the heels of the Dadar rape case, wherein a ten-year-old student was brutally raped by a canteen staffer on school premises, concerns over the safety of students have been causing sleepless nights to parents across the city. This has also brought with it the urgent need for a comprehensive security system in all schools — a system that requires cumulative effort from parents, police and the school.
Addressing these concerns, principals from about 600 city schools have come forward with an initiative to ensure the best security possible for students during school hours.
The initiative, aptly named ‘Safe schools, safe students’, aims to bring together psychologists, NGOs and the police, in order to come up with a water-tight security system in all schools. Astring of workshops, interactive programmes and awareness campaigns have been planned for the days ahead as a part of this initiative, which is due to commence on January 21.
“We have a ten-point agenda for safety, which includes a combination of physical and psychological resources that schools can build up on to ensure better safety of students,” said Amol Dhamdhere, Vice president of Indian Education Society.
A workshop on sex education, with parents, teachers and students in attendance, is set to mark the beginning of the initiative. Issues regarding the mental well-being of students, presence of female attendants in school buses and washrooms, and the importance of counselling sessions, are all on the agenda of this initiative.
However, pointing out a loophole on the part of the government, despite a Bombay High Court ruling making the installation of CCTV cameras mandatory within school premises, Sudam Kumbhar, principal, Shailendra Secondary High School, said, “There are no guidelines from the state education department about how to manage the funds required for the same.” Like the root cause of most of our problems, this lays bare the gap between the law and its execution.
Addressing these concerns, principals from about 600 city schools have come forward with an initiative to ensure the best security possible for students during school hours.
The initiative, aptly named ‘Safe schools, safe students’, aims to bring together psychologists, NGOs and the police, in order to come up with a water-tight security system in all schools. Astring of workshops, interactive programmes and awareness campaigns have been planned for the days ahead as a part of this initiative, which is due to commence on January 21.
“The idea behind the initiative was to introspect why these security glitches take place in schools,” said MLC Kapil Patil, the coordinator for the initiative.
“We have a ten-point agenda for safety, which includes a combination of physical and psychological resources that schools can build up on to ensure better safety of students,” said Amol Dhamdhere, Vice president of Indian Education Society.
A workshop on sex education, with parents, teachers and students in attendance, is set to mark the beginning of the initiative. Issues regarding the mental well-being of students, presence of female attendants in school buses and washrooms, and the importance of counselling sessions, are all on the agenda of this initiative.
However, pointing out a loophole on the part of the government, despite a Bombay High Court ruling making the installation of CCTV cameras mandatory within school premises, Sudam Kumbhar, principal, Shailendra Secondary High School, said, “There are no guidelines from the state education department about how to manage the funds required for the same.” Like the root cause of most of our problems, this lays bare the gap between the law and its execution.
