HYDERABAD: Incidents leading to students casualty owing to negligence on part of school managements have turned common place. It was only two days ago when a Class-I student of Government Primary High School in Miyapur lost his life during school hours when the gate of an open plot near the school fell on him. The issue pertaining to security of school children has once again surfaced with this incident and school administrations and parents have both called the tragedy “a wake-up call”.
“It is sheer negligence on part of the school. Had the driver and attendant been doing their job properly, loss of a life could have been avoided,” said Ashish Naredi, a parent. He added that parents also need to be cautious of the security of their child and raise it with the management if they observe lapses.He added that Hyderabad Schools Parents Association has for long been demanding for safety audits in all schools.
“But schools have remained indifferent to our demands and government too has shown no interest,” he added. It may be recalled that post the murder of the 6-year-old student of Ryan International, Gurugram, in line with the Supreme Court’s words that a student’s safety and security is the prerogative and responsibility of the school authorities, the State government too had issued a GO stating that “it is bounden duty of the schools to provide the environment to the children, where they feel safe and free from any form of physical or emotional abuse or harassment.”
Accordingly, all schools in the State — CBSE, ICSE, IB, Cambridge syllabus etc — had been asked to get safety audits of their premises done by the local police station among the other measures. While all schools had affirmed their support for the audit, even after months it has remained only on the paper.
Anjali Razdan vice-chairperson of the CBSE Schools’ Association explains that such an elaborate procedure would have demanded money for which they would have had to raise fee along with the assistance from police to expedite the screening process of lakhs of employees in schools.
“There is a need for 360-degree collaboration for something like this. However, ensuring the safety of a student from the time he boards the bus in the morning till he alights, is the responsibility of the school and ensuring this does not require money — only vigilance on part of the schools,” Razdan, who is also the principal of Obul Reddy School, said.