Amidst fears of children being vulnerable to online bullying and other pitfalls on social media, schools across the State will now have to pay special attention to cybersecurity and ensure that their students are taught about the safe use of technology.
One of the draft rules of the Karnataka Educational Institutions (Classification, Regulation and Prescription of Curricula, etc) Amendment Rules-2017 states that students need to be educated on the consequences of cyber-bullying and harassment. Social networking sites should be blocked at all times in schools, and sites containing adult content need to be restricted.
The draft rules tackle the topic of unsupervised access to the Net, and notes that children in computer labs or those who have access to electronic devices need to be supervised by teachers or staff at all times. Every school has to maintain a record and report all cases of cyber-bullying and harassment, with sensitivity and confidentiality.
Gayatri Devi, principal of Little Flower Public School in Banashankari pointed out that rather than imposing rules for cybersecurity, schools need to constantly engage students in physical activities so that the time spent with the gadgets is restricted. “There is a need for parents and schools to monitor virtual friendships which are a cause of concern with increasing use of social media,” she said.
Another important point raised is the need for counsellors. Schools are mandated to have counselling services and referrals, and lay down a a code of conduct (behavioural guidelines) for how children should interact with each other.
Vice-chairman Sumanth Narayan from Shanthinikethana School said it was a welcome move as the issue of cybersecurity has not been addressed to date. “It is the need of the hour to tackle this issue. Based on the facilities and technology they have, individual schools need to come up with their own policy,” he said.
Apart from bullying, the draft rules addresses the need for schools to have a “student protection plan” and carry out safety audits annually. Schools also need to have a disaster management plan and conduct regular emergency drills.
All schools have to take up safety and security measures six months after the rules are finalised.
Those operating in the 2017-2018 academic year should fulfil all building and infrastructure conditions in a year. An official said that while most of the provisions have been sourced from the Child Protection Policy, there was a need to include this in the rules so that they can enforce it and penalise managements.
Toilets for boys, but what about girls?
While it is mandatory for schools to have functional toilets for boys, having separate functional toilets for girls is only recommended according to the draft Karnataka Educational institutions (Classification, Regulation and Prescription of Curricula, etc) Amendment Rules-2017. The move has drawn criticism with experts expressing hope that the Department of Primary and Secondary Education rectify it before it is finalised. When contacted, officials said that it was a typo.
Pvt. managements raise objections
Private managements have raised objections to several points in the draft rules. D. Shashi Kumar, general secretary, Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka, said they were opposed to the fact that schools would be given permission to have classes from one to ten. “Schools should be given permission to expand in a phased manner and giving permission at one shot would lead to unhealthy marketing,” he said. He, however, pointed out that they welcomed the move of amalgamation of different school units into one, which means that they can get the necessary permissions from a single authority and curb corruption. Mr. Kumar also said while the rules stipulate that pre-primary institutions would have to get their affilications renewed every year, the law demands only registration of such institutions.
