Report by Kahnu Nanda; Jagatsinghpur: In the wake of the brutal murder of an eight year old boy at a private school in Gurgaon in Haryana, there was much hue and cry occurred across the country, acting on the event, CBSE, educational authority including Odisha government have issued a host of guidelines strengthening the school security and safety recently, but in reality schools seem to have learnt no lesson, many schools were found flouting security norms with impunity.
A visit to various private and government schools by this correspondent on the Jagatsinghpur outskirts on Friday revealed that no fool proof security arrangements had been put on in running private schools, in reality safety and security measures in government schools have turned
Out to be a shame.
To begin with this correspondent reached in a front running private school Sudhananda Vidyalaya near Gandhi Chhak here, I was stopped by the security guard who was busy in his mobile phone he asked me whom to meet, I simply queried presence of principal in school, and he replied yes sir, principal in his room and allowed me to go. Ironically the security guard did not ask me to furnish my identity proof, not bothered to check my credentials.
After entering school one woman guard stood next to principal room stopped me, interrogated my visit and after few minutes she arranged meeting Principal. My discussion with principal started taking stock of the safety and security arrangements of the school, principal added that there were three security guards working in school including lady staff have been deployed taking care of children.
On verification the school had been functioning since 2000 having 470 students from nursery class to tenth class. The school possess adequate infrastructures, spacious class rooms, playground own building, toilets for both girls and boys maintaining separate levorotary for staff, principal Bansidhar Das added that district collector Yamini Sarangi’s two kids have been admitted in school this year, principal informed.
After getting go ahead this correspondent reached another prominent school ‘Dream India School’ near Gopalsagar here. Though getting entry in to school was not problem as no security guard, no entry register and strict vigil was maintained here. This correspondent roamed freely inside the school for over 10 minutes, interacting with few students and guardians did not raise any suspicion, later met the school principal Haraprasanna Rout who informed school has no security guard, peons working in school performing guard role, on verification it could find that 386 students are reading in several classes interestingly although the school is CBSE affiliated the principal was unaware about the safety and security guidelines issued by CBSE on September 12 after the Ryan School incident.
Moreover this correspond visited another two public schools more shockingly the schools situated on one of the busiest roads here, had also allowed auto rickshaw drivers to park their vehicles next to school boundary, both the schools lack security guards , inadequate infrastructures as in 400 students strength Jagatsinghpur public school has three toilets, no fire extinguisher. St Xavier School an old private school having 550 students is still running in a rented house, the school Principal Saroj Kumar Padhy said two security guards are working but this correspondent found no security guard deployed at gate.
Later a visit to the a reputed government school in court Chhak here also revealed similar lapses ,this correspondent entry into the premises without any hassle, it is much dismay that government schools was found non serious in terms of providing safety and security to its school children where no security guards, no cameras and no checking done.
After visiting several private and government schools this correspondent met District Education Officer [DEO] Kapilendra Mishra, queried about state government recent guidelines for a safe and secure environment in the schools who replied that as many as 27 private schools are functioning in his jurisdiction we can force them to implement the safety and security measures enshrined by state mass education department but it is impossible to add the new security norms in government schools, he informed.
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