Principals and teachers of 12 schools — that fall under the jurisdiction of the Sampangiramnagar police station — are bemused by a set of directions they have received from the police. They have been asked to instruct the parents of their students to send an SMS to the school the moment their child reaches home. Parents as well as school managements feel that it is not practical to do this every day.
The directive issued by the Assistant Sub-inspector of Police, Sampangiramnagar, asks school managements to introduce an SMS system where they can get updates from parents on whether a student has reached home safely after class. This was one of nine directions issued by the police on Friday. Some of the other directions include installing CCTV cameras inside and outside classrooms, background verification for van drivers and security personnel, as well as ensuring a lady attendant in buses or vans.
Rao Ganesh Janardhan, Police Inspector, Sampangiramnagar, said the directions were issued in the interest of the safety and security of students. “We want schools to take an extra level of precaution so that no untoward incident takes place. We will ensure that all schools comply with this,” he said. He, however, admitted that the direction to ask parents to send SMS was not practical for government schools. “I will visit all the schools and inform the two government schools that they need not implement this clause,” he said.
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A parent said, “It is not practical to send a message to the school every day. Most often, we are not at home when our child returns.”
D. Shashi Kumar, general secretary, Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka, said the police should understand there was a comprehensive child protection policy in place. “There is a need for the Police Commissioner to intervene and ensure that such guidelines are not issued,” he said.