CCTVs Put Compoundless Schools in Dilemma
Even while the Chennai City Police’s insistence to schools to step up their security with CCTV cameras on entry and exit points of the school and maintenance of records on drivers have been largely welcomed by private schools, many a government school is still in dilemma.
Not only do most of the government schools lack the cameras but some even do not have a entry/exit gates or even a compound wall to maintain the security. In the Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Kundrathur the compound wall is absent in one side which is facing the main road.
“The school has girls from 6-12th and in spite of this there is no compound wall on one side. The situation has been like this since the establishment of the school. Anyone can get into the school at any time directly through the main road. We have approached the Headmistress of the school regarding the issue. But no action has been taken,” says A Bhupati, a father of a student at the school.
Activists in the area of education point out that basic security infrastructure like a compound wall, gate and security guards are among the main concerns of parents when it comes to enrolling their child in a school and it could account for the reasons why parents prefer private schools with lesser qualified teachers and lesser incentives to government schools where such security measures may be ignored.
In the previous year’s budget the Chennai Corporation schools had been allocated budget to provide the cameras to school but out of the over 200 schools only 14 have been benefited by the scheme. “We have fitted the cameras in 14 schools with the budget in the previous year. But this year we did not have any budget under the project. We hope to first provide the cameras to the high schools and higher secondary schools and then come down to the lower schools. But funds for this are yet to be allocated.”, said the Deputy Commissioner (Education) of Chennai Corporation, R Lalitha
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Nursery Primary Matriculation Higher Secondary School’s Association has said that that most schools under it are looking at putting up more than one CCTV camera. “Many of the schools have already put up the cameras. But often one at the entry and exit points are not enough. So schools have been installing them in other places as well including corridors, car parks,” said the General Secretary of the Association, K R Nandakumar.