This is not an everyday scene in a classroom in a regular school: Seven-year-old Amit Mane’s teacher has stepped out after giving the class an assignment. Having completed his work, Mane is now leaning over to chat with his mate. Suddenly a voice booms through the speakers on the classroom wall, commanding Mane to get back to work. He obeys meekly, suddenly remembering that innocent chatter let alone pranks that is part and parcel of schools elsewhere is not acceptable here.

For the students of Zilla Parishad school (classes I-V) at Loni Kand, some 10 km from here, this has become daily routine. Even as most ZP schools battle with shortage of teachers and infrastructure limitations, the Loni Kand School seems to be playing catch up with some of the pricey Panchgani private schools, by going in for closed circuit cameras to monitor each move that a student makes.

The system, installed in January 2007 with financial support from local politicians Pradeep Kanda and Shankar Bhumkar, has closed circuit cameras in all 10 classrooms, keeping the students under constant surveillance. The cameras are connected to the cabin of Principal GR Zurunge, who is in control of the monitoring operation. Any signs of “indiscipline” are quickly quashed with a reprimand over the public address system in each classroom.

“With 40-50 students in each class, it was difficult for the teachers to pay sufficient attention to all the children. Even when I made my routine rounds in each classroom, silence would prevail only till I left the room,” said Zurunge.

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