Bhopal: Child Commission to issue SOP on security of kids in schools  

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The Madhya Pradesh State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (MPCPCR) has prepared a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for ensuring protection and security of children on the premises of schools and on buses that ferry them from and to their homes. 

Brajesh Chauhan, Member of the Commission told Free Press that the SOP, which has been prepared in the wake of the recent incident at a school in Bhopal, will be released within a day or two. “We are preparing a comprehensive document in consultation with legal experts, doctors and educationists,” he said. 

The SOP will recommend that the CCTV cameras installed in buses and on the premises of the schools should be upgraded. “Latest equipment should be used so that the footage is clear. Also the recordings should be kept safe for at least 20 days,” he said. Chauhan said that though the SC guidelines prescribe that the recordings should be preserved for 60 days. However, that would need a huge investment in hardware that many schools may not be able to afford. “Hence as a midway, we are proposing 20 days,” he said.  

Chauhan also said that the scope of consultations in Parents-Teaching meetings (PTMs) should be made wider and a proper record of the consultations should be kept. The SOP would also provide for formation of committees of parents and higher class students at the school level to ensure that the management takes the views of the parents seriously.  

He said that the SOP may also recommend that the pre-primary and primary schools should have only female teachers and staff. The buses should compulsorily have female attendants. 

Inspection of buses complete

District  Education Officer (DEO) Nitin Saxena said that the teams appointed by the district administration to check school buses in the wake of the Billabong High School incident, have completed their work and the report has been submitted to higher officials. “I cannot reveal the contents of the report to you,” he told the Free Press. 

About panic buttons in school buses, he said that the Transport Minister had made an announcement to this effect but the education department is yet to issue orders on this matter.