Parents take stock of safety measures

A team of parents’ representatives visited the Vibgyor High school on Sunday to take stock of the progress made in implementing various safety measures suggested by them.

S M Ramesh, the local block education officer (BEO), Kavita Sahay, director, Vibgyor High school and police officials were present during the inspection. As many as 150 parents went to the school for the inspection.     

At a meeting between the parents and the school management on July 24, the latter had agreed to implement 11 safety measures drafted by parents.

Ramesh said work was in progress and that he was “satisfied” with the efforts made so far.

“There are a number of safety measures that have to be taken by the school and all this cannot be done at the same time. I expect compliance with all the measures in a few days,” he said. 

A representative of the parents said, “All the CCTV cameras have almost been installed and they will be up and running by tomorrow.” Ramesh said that an estimated 100 cameras have been installed so far.

Ramesh said that the background details of all the staff members have been sent to the police and verification will be done soon. On the progress in issuing bearers’ cards, the representative of the parents said first priority will be for children in class I and class II.

‘Disallow commercial use’

One of the main demands of the parents was to disallow commercial use of the school premises and for minimum contact with outsiders.

 “Fencing of marked locations is in progress and separate arrangements for water tankers have already been made,” she said. The sports and performance activities (SPA) have been suspended till further notice.

“Only after making sure that everything is in place and background checks of the staff in this department are checked will the SPA start,” said the parent.     

With regard to safety in school buses, another parent who was part of the inspection team said that while the GPS tracking had been in place before, there will be a relook at this aspect as well as at the antecedents of drivers hired by the school.

“The process of starting an ombudsman ID to register parents’ complaints as mentioned in the 11 points will be looked at only after the Parents-Teachers Association is constiuted.

The deadline for this is September 12 as mentioned in the guidelines,” said the parent.