State of confusion: Multiple, if not contrary, norms on child safety confuse Bengaluru institutions A team of education department officials landed at the doorsteps of a high-profile school on Sarjapur Road a week ago to check the implementation of safety guidelines. "Where are the CCTVs inside classrooms?" they asked.
The team was checking if the school was complying with the education department's set of guidelines, which insists on cameras inside classrooms.The school, however, had followed the `mandatory' guidelines issued by City Police Commissioner MN Reddi, which does not explicitly state where and how many cameras should be installed inside a school. As if that confusion is not enough, the draft of a comprehensive Child Protection Policy (CPP), recently announced by the Karnataka government, is totally ..
Further, the transport department issued another set of guidelines on Tuesday, asking schools to form a School Cab Safety Committee.Inundated by guidelines, some running contrary to one another, schools in Bengaluru are confused and are juggling between checklists.
"The question we are asking is, which of these must we follow? There are so many contradictions. For instance, police guidelines state that female staff should be on school buses till the last kid is dropped home but the education department says women must be dropped first. Police guidelines are silent on protection committees in schools, " said Nooraine Fazal, co-founder and managing trustee of Inventure Academy.
The CPP, which has been drafted with Unicef support, envisions a child-centric approach to make schools safer, by proposing designated roles for school management, parents, teachers and other stakeholders. It also states that schools should have a child protection committee and child protection officers.
The policy lays down a meticulous procedure to deal with cases of sexual abuse against children and a long checklist. "Those who inspect schools come from the education department and bring with them guidelines that are recommendatory in nature. The police guidelines are mandatory. The persons framing guidelines and checking them are different, which adds to the confusion," said Divya Balagopal, a lawyer specialising in education and a senior partner at Mundkur Law Partners.
"The draft has incorporated most of the police guidelines, but we are not in favour of CCTVs simply because gov ernment schools cannot af ford it. The policy would have both recommendatory and mandatory points and it will be implemented in a staggered way," said Suchitra Rao, a Unicef consultant who was the main facilitator of the CPP draft.
T he Kar nataka Associated Managements of English Medium Schools (KAMS) has ob jected to the draft policy .
"The draft clearly goes to suggest that only schools are unsafe and does not talk about safety of children in their neighbourhood," said KAMS g eneral secretary D Shashi Kumar.
source: economics times | http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/services/education/bengaluru-child-safety-guidelines-put-schools-in-a-fix/articleshow/45282130.cms
The team was checking if the school was complying with the education department's set of guidelines, which insists on cameras inside classrooms.The school, however, had followed the `mandatory' guidelines issued by City Police Commissioner MN Reddi, which does not explicitly state where and how many cameras should be installed inside a school. As if that confusion is not enough, the draft of a comprehensive Child Protection Policy (CPP), recently announced by the Karnataka government, is totally ..
Further, the transport department issued another set of guidelines on Tuesday, asking schools to form a School Cab Safety Committee.Inundated by guidelines, some running contrary to one another, schools in Bengaluru are confused and are juggling between checklists.
"The question we are asking is, which of these must we follow? There are so many contradictions. For instance, police guidelines state that female staff should be on school buses till the last kid is dropped home but the education department says women must be dropped first. Police guidelines are silent on protection committees in schools, " said Nooraine Fazal, co-founder and managing trustee of Inventure Academy.
The CPP, which has been drafted with Unicef support, envisions a child-centric approach to make schools safer, by proposing designated roles for school management, parents, teachers and other stakeholders. It also states that schools should have a child protection committee and child protection officers.
The policy lays down a meticulous procedure to deal with cases of sexual abuse against children and a long checklist. "Those who inspect schools come from the education department and bring with them guidelines that are recommendatory in nature. The police guidelines are mandatory. The persons framing guidelines and checking them are different, which adds to the confusion," said Divya Balagopal, a lawyer specialising in education and a senior partner at Mundkur Law Partners.
"The draft has incorporated most of the police guidelines, but we are not in favour of CCTVs simply because gov ernment schools cannot af ford it. The policy would have both recommendatory and mandatory points and it will be implemented in a staggered way," said Suchitra Rao, a Unicef consultant who was the main facilitator of the CPP draft.
T he Kar nataka Associated Managements of English Medium Schools (KAMS) has ob jected to the draft policy .
"The draft clearly goes to suggest that only schools are unsafe and does not talk about safety of children in their neighbourhood," said KAMS g eneral secretary D Shashi Kumar.
source: economics times | http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/services/education/bengaluru-child-safety-guidelines-put-schools-in-a-fix/articleshow/45282130.cms
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