Are schools going to be safer this year?

Department of Public Instruction had conducted audits of schools across the State in November and found that many lacked safety measures.

Despite a series of sexual assaults and rapes reported in school campuses in the last academic year, many schools in the city are yet to gear up and comply with basic safety guidelines that includes installing CCTV cameras and background verification of staff.

With private school managements challenging the nine-point guidelines issued by the police commissioner in court and the high-powered committee headed by the Additional Chief Secretary yet to collate safety guidelines issued by various departments, schools are adopting the wait and watch policy.

The Department of Public Instruction had in November conducted audits of schools across the State and found that many lacked safety measures.

Nevertheless, many schools have drastically increased their school fees citing infrastructural cost arising of safety guidelines.

Gayathri Ananth of the Vigilant Citizen, a parents' group, said, “Many schools have still not made safety a priority. The first thing they need to ensure is setting up a committee for parents who can monitor safety in the school premises,” she said. However, she said, merely adhering to safety guidelines would not help in making campuses safer. “Schools need to have a plan and periodically review it to ensure that campuses are safer,” she added.