Hyderabad: Union education secretary Anil Swarup has instructed schools to develop their own safety plans to ensure that schools are free from sexual abuse.
In light of the number of sexual abuse cases reported on school premises, NCERT textbooks will now contain material on “good” and “bad” touch from the primary level. This is so that students know if they are being abused at school or at home and can talk about it. However the lack of student counsellors is yet another issue that needs to be checked.
Although many schools have installed CCTV cameras, there are various other measures that the board has instructed them to take but which are yet to be taken including behavioural and psychological tests for staff.
Deepthi Divakar, a teacher, says, “It is not a bad idea to have schools come up with their own safety plans but the board should strictly enforce rules and ensure that schools live up to it. They can ask for timely reports from schools regarding their security measures. Only then can we assume that schools are working towards the safety of children. Now there are many schools that have measures in place but incidents continue to happen and it goes unreported because students fear to come out. There should be regular checking of CCTV footage and counselling sessions with students.”
School officials say that a uniform set of rules for all schools should be followed first and then schools can be asked to develop their own plans, if and when needed.
