Hyderabad: Government in the dark over adoption of safety & security norms by schools

Hyderabad: Are private schools following the safety band security norms for children issued by the State School Education Department (SSED)?

If the goings-on are any indication, the SSED is clueless. The reason: the SSED had issued GO.36 on December 16, 2017, indicating steps the schools should take for safety and security of children in schools across Telangana.

The instructions have to be implemented in "both unaided and aided private schools and schools affiliated to different boards such as CBSE, ICSE, IB, Cambridge."

The GO is celebrating its fifth anniversary within a fortnight. But, the department has no idea due to lack of data. It is clueless if all schools across the State have implemented even the first point of the long list of guidelines.

For example, the schools are asked to approach the local police station under whose jurisdiction it is located. The guidelines for the safety and security of children mandated schools get security and safety audit of the premises and the personnel done from the police. The schools are asked to follow security-related advice for safety of children given by the police.

However, according to SSED sources, the department did not bother to know after issuing GO whether the safety and security auditing was done by the local police. If done, how many schools have complied with GO? There is no data on this with the department.

Speaking to The Hans India, a mandal education officer from Nalgonda said: "the MEOs or DEOs are not asked to verify during the police auditing of safety and security records of a school. So, at the MEO and DEO level this is not taken into consideration while renewal of schools' recognition."

There are no records for SSED to randomly inspect and get a feel how schools are complying and the standards of compliance in line with the guidelines for the safety and security of children in schools. This is resulting in the school taking the full compliance of SSED guidelines lightly.

However, many schools implemented the guideline relating to installation of CCTV cameras, said a department official of Hyderabad district.