HYDERABAD: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) have issued a communique to their affiliated institutions, putting the onus of children’s safety on school campuses and asking them to furnish details of the safety audit measures by September 16.The instructions come in the wake of the killing of a 7-year-old boy in a school in Gurugram, near Delhi. While the circular may have reassured parents who are jolted by the murder, the schools are likely to find it difficult to implement the diktat. Checking the antecedents of all the employees via police verification and psychometric tests within two months appear to be two most problematic directives, according to some schools.
Calling it a good directive, the principal of Obul Reddy School said asking a psychometric evaluation is a bit of an exaggeration as it is not a foolproof mechanism. “We have no problem in initiating police verification but the process needs to be easy and should not act as a deterrent to recruitment process or functioning of the school,” said Anjali Razdan.
Be it the Gurugram murder or a spate of incidents in which school-going children were sexually abused, a few schools, often under pressure from parents, have resorted to revisiting their safety audits.
While most schools have CCTVs installed, monitoring the activity of visitors can become an issue, said a few principals.“To be able to efficiently man every entry and exit points, we have decided to install photographic machine soon. Already we are issuing ID cards to all visitors and their movement in the school is allowed in specified areas,” said Sunita Rao, principal of DPS, Nacharam.
Some recent incidents in state
Sept 13: Class XII student at Meerpet in Hyderabad jumped off the fifth floor of his residential building after being beaten up by vice-principal and two lecturers
Sept 13: Class 7 student slapped by teacher for changing his seat
Sept12: An 11-year-old girl was made to stand outside the boys’ urinal for not wearing proper uniform
Aug 30: Students of Class 8 and 9 of ZPH School in Nalgonda accuse headmaster of molestation.
Aug 18: A Class III student in Wanaparthy district attempts suicide after being beaten up by his teacher
Aug 1: A Class X student in Mahbubnagar was tied to a pole in school and beaten up for taking a photo of a teacher who was sleeping in classroom
July 28: 36 girls of government high school at Amangal were beaten by teacher for not leaving their footwear outside the classroom