Schools struggle to put safety systems in place

MUMBAI: As the new academic year begins in schools, safety of students is a major concern among parents and academicians.

MUMBAI: As the new academic year begins in schools, safety of students is a major concern among parents and academicians.

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The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), which has been looking at the issue through its Institute of Quality, has suggested guidelines and audits by the state government to check infrastructure and security measures in educational institutes.

CII came up with the suggestions after consultations with 20 schools over the last six months. The discussions started after incidents of sexual assault and harsh corporal punishment were reported from Mumbai and Bangalore schools in the last two years. The discussions were part of the campaign called ‘Make Schools Safer and Smarter’.

Although schools are trying to upgrade security and infrastructure on their own, principals and teachers said they are confused about what needs to be done.

Schools, for instance, installed closed-circuit television cameras (CCTVs) on the orders of the Bombay high court last year. But, recordings can be stored only for a month. “It takes more than 30 days for students’ complaints to reach the management. By then, the camera footage is deleted from the system,” said A Senthil Kumaran, principal counsellor with the CII’s Institute of Quality.

The education department urged schools to get police verifications of teaching and non-teaching staff, but many are unable to do so.

Children’s Academy Group of Schools in Kandivli and Malad hired private agencies to conduct a background check of employees, but police refused to verify them. “The police want address proofs and other papers for verification but most drivers and bus attendants are migrants and do not have the documents. The police behave rudely with them,” said Rohit Bhat, COO of Children’s Academy Group of Schools.

Principals said a safety audit by the department and a list of dos and don’ts will help them. “A friendly audit of interested schools could help improve standards,” said J Vas, senior advisor, Jamnabai Narsee School, Vile Parle (West).

But BD Puri, deputy education inspector, said the department did not have staff to carry out such audits. “One person is doing the job of 18 people. We don’t have the manpower to send officials to each school,” said Puri.

Some schools are also keen to get accreditations from the CBSE, which recently created School Quality Assessment and Accreditation (SQAA). The schools want the accreditation as it will help them learn the measures expected by the industry and also assure parents that they have met the standards of safety.

The state government’s State Assessment and Accreditation Council works in a similar manner but is restricted to government-aided schools. It has not started yet.

The SQAA is on hold. It is under review for the last few months because of a ‘conflict of interest’ as the agencies appointed to assess the schools are also private education solutions providers. There were fears that it might influence the assessments.