New safety rule book for schools initiated by state educational department

Including international schools, junior colleges which are attached to the school, all the schools will be given instructions on safety measures by the state school education department as the Supreme court has passed out prescription to do so.

In recent years, there have been lot of case studies regarding student’s safety, out of which the case of Ryan school murder was very disturbing for everyone but not just parents and their children. The circular issued by the educational department ordered every school to install CCTVs at the main entrance, campus and exit gates. There will three times attendance marked in a day and a message will be sent parents if they are absent. Also there will be no strict punishment in any way which will affect the child both, mentally and physically.

The department has put the responsibility about safety on the school management. The new guidelines also prohibit entry of unidentified persons or strangers for safety of students, especially girls. Character certificates should be sought from the concerned police station, not only for school teachers or employees but also for appointing canteen boys, ones handling transportation or administrative employees.

The department has issued various precautionary measures which prominently highlights safety for girls. For which they have advised to build a separate washrooms for girls at a suitable distance from boys washroom and the girl washroom will be allocated with a female attendant. A female teacher or attendant will be accompanied with a girl if she must leave the school for an exam or any other important event, and the school bus female attendant should not leave the bus unless the last girl is dropped to their destination.

These guidelines will be applicable for state board schools, international ones, CBSE and ICSE and have to be followed from the academic year 2018-19. But the state may consider giving some period to schools for implementation.

Education minister Vinod Tawde told TOI though the state cannot intervene in curriculum of international schools, student safety is within the state’s purview. “Students are from Maharashtra, so all those schools should also follow norms. If any school fails to do so, the department will register a police case against the institute,” said Tawde. Safety of students on campus became a major issue following the murder of a seven-year-old student in a Gurgaon school. Following the incident, the SC and Center issued guidelines for all states on safety norms.

Zeenat Bhojabhoy, principal of Jamnabai Narsee School, said they already follow the safety manual issued by the Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations. “It is a must for all schools. There should be uniform guidelines across schools. Having a vigilance committee comprising parents is a good recommendation, and schools should follow it. However, taking attendance thrice may not be possible in many cases and it may not even be necessary for schools which have a class strength of not more than 30-40,” said the principal.

Lack of understanding the safety issues are the major reasons to give chance to both incidents and accidents. This time the ignorance would not be bliss.