No guard — 15 teachers to keep 550 students safe

There are 550 students and 15 teachers at the North Municipal Corporation school in Mangolpuri. The school has no security guard, and the official explanation is "teachers are there during school hours to look after them (students)".

The 15 teachers — 13 women and two men — include the principal. The school also has a peon to attend to the teachers, and a sweeper. Most students in the school are girls.

The campus is devoid of CCTV camera surveillance.

The North Municipal Corporation, which has 4.5 lakh students in its various schools, in its recent budget sanctioned Rs 2.5 crore for installation of CCTV cameras in schools. Another Rs 2.5 crore was kept aside for recruiting security guards — former women employees of paramilitary forces.

The corporation also announced 'Sayaani Bitiya Rani Yojana', under which girl students would be taught about the "wrong and right" touch.

Like all morning-shift schools, the Mangolpuri school breaks for recess at 10.30 am. School hours get over by 12.30 pm. Teachers leave between 1 pm and 1.30 pm.

When the school starts, at 6 am, there is no one to man the gate. But during the night, between 6 pm and 8 am, a chowkidar does the rounds but is not stationed at the main gate.

Deputy Chairperson of Education Committee (North), Ramkishan Bansiwal told Newsline that at every school function, he starts his address by asking parents to ensure that they drop and fetch the children on their own — for the child's safety.

"We approved the recruitment of security guards and installation of CCTV cameras three months ago, but the file has not moved. The process should have been fast-tracked. We need to make our schools secure," he said.

Chairperson Rekha Gupta said the corporation will cooperate in the probe and if anyone from the school is found involved, he or she will face the consequences.

... contd.

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