Bengaluru: The Department of Public Instruction has done a U-turn on the issue of mandatory CCTVs to all schools. Now it is stating that the new order on CCTVs is applicable only to private schools and government schools will be kept out of the purview of the new order.
Speaking to this newspaper, Mr. Mohammed Mohsin, commissioner, DPI, said that there was no need for CCTVs in government schools.
“They are not big buildings like private schools. No one is allowed to enter private schools. But anyone can enter a government school premise at any time. Transparency, openness is always maintained in the government schools. So there is no need of the CCTVs,” he reasoned.
According to officials, in any case it will not be an easy task for the government to install CCTVs in all the government schools. “Fact is that the government can’t afford to implement this decision at all. There are more than 30,000 schools in the state run by various government agencies. The government would need several hundred crores to install CCTVs in these schools. So such a scheme is not advisable even on a pilot basis in a few schools,” informed an officer.
“Compared to private schools, sexual harassment incidents were reported in higher numbers from the government schools. But CCTVs alone can’t solve the problem. The need of the hour is a better monitoring system in the schools. Unfortunately the government is not in a position to meet any of the instructions by its own department regarding the schools,” he added.
