Just three kilometres separate govt-aided DAV School in Jangpura and Kendriya Vidyalaya in Andrews Ganj, but there’s a world of difference in the security arrangements at the two institutions. Shubhomoy Sikdar visits the two premises to find out more
A few days after a seven-year-old boy was found murdered on the premises of Ryan International School in Bhondsi, Gurugram, a private chain of educational institutions that promises quality education in a safe environment, The Hindu visited DAV school in Jangpura, south Delhi, to check the measures in place for students' safety.
Day 1 (September 12)
The main gate of the school is open and no guard is present outside to stop strangers from entering the premises, or the students from leaving it.
Access to students is easy as a lot of them are outside milling around.
“There are 20 teachers for 24 classes here. This means that at any given period, there are at least four classes where teachers are not present. Those students can easily step out of the school. No one is keeping tabs on them,” a student informs.
The school doesn’t even have a full-time principal. In the staff room two teachers are present, both ready to talk about the problems in the school. They agree that there is a dearth of teachers in the school without realising that their presence in the staff room means at least two more classes are having a free period at that time.
Talking about the safety measure for children, one of the teachers says: “No one can stop anyone from coming inside. It can be a terrorist with guns for all you know.”
“If you are looking to send your child here, you are pushing him [it’s an all boys’ school] into an environment of fear and preparing him for failure in future,” he says.
“What happened in the Gurugram school once happens here almost every day. Outsiders come at will and wreak havoc. In absence of any security guard, we have to call the police. Dozens of PCR calls are made every month,” adds the teacher.
A day later, The Hindu visits the school again.
Day 2 (September 13)
The safety issues observed during the first visit are formally raised before the local MLA, Praveen Kumar, who has come to the school to hold a meeting.
On the second day a calculation error is corrected -- there are 18 teachers and not 20 for nearly 700 students in the school. Students’ security is flagged as the main concern.
A Division Officer from the police is also in the meeting and he confirms the frequency of PCR calls against outsiders creating a ruckus on
the campus.
Who are these outsiders? “They are men who the students call to settle their fights. A single gatekeeper can do little as the outsides can easily scale the boundary walls. We need much more security,” says one of the teachers. The teacher-in charge, Satyaveer, agrees.
The school gate is closed today, but then Mr Kumar is visiting the premises. The MLA listens to the students who tell him about how things are in a shambles. Mr. Kumar assures them that things will get better.
The Hindu asks the MLA what he plans to do about the issues being faced by the school.
“A file has been sent to Lieutenant-Governor, Anil Baijal, to take control of the school. It needs nothing less than a complete turnaround,” he says.
Day 3 (September 14)
A day after the MLA’s visit, Satyaveer and other teachers talk about how the poor student-teacher ratio means that the children have a run of
the school.
Far from the safety of students, the teachers fear for their own lives. Just moments after the teachers voice their concerns, reality strikes.
A minor argument breaks out between a large group of students and some teachers. One of the students in the crowd hurls a fistful of dirt at Satyaveer, who then helplessly walks back to his office.
Many students say they have never indulged in any violence and want to study peacefully. Most realise that this is a utopian wish given the lack of security and surveillance on the campus. Who will rein in the others, and the outsiders who walk in at their will, they ask.
Parents’ concerns
Missing from the picture are the parents of the students. Most of them are too busy with their jobs to pick up or drop off their children at school or question the missing security arrangements.
Those who do visit the premises say they are far more worried about the lack of infrastructure and quality education than safety measures in the school.
