Classes resume at Cambridge

The Indiranagar Cambridge School, Jeevan Bima Nagar, reopened on Thursday, nearly a week after it was shut on October 31. Classes had been suspended, following the alleged rape of a six year old girl in the school.

The school was abuzz in the morning with most of the children happy to be back at school, even as anxious parents saw them off at the gate and kept waiting outside.

The school reopened after a meeting on Wednesday, mediated by the police. The school management and the parents had come face to face for the first time since the incident.

On Thursday, most of the parents expressed dissatisfaction with the way the meeting was conducted as most of their concerns remained unaddressed. Education department officials said that the attendance was 76 per cent as 851 students from nursery to class X, out of the total 1120, attended.

Parents of children studying in Class 9, 10 were worried as the Hindi teacher is behind bars for allegedly committing the crime. Later, the children said that the Hindi classes were taken by the teacher for junior sections. The parents were sceptical on whether the school will fulfil all safety guidelines issued by the police and the education department as they are not allowed to go beyond the school gate.

Education department officials, who visited the school on Thursday, said that it had installed 20 CCTV cameras, out of the 90 which the management had promised. The officials said that the police had given the school three days time to implement all security measures.

Usha, who had come to drop off her two daughters studying in class IV and VIII, told Deccan Herald, “As a parent, I am still very worried to send my daughters to this school. How do I know if the security measures have been implemented or not. Yesterday, we were not given a chance to speak during the meeting. The political activists kept fighting among themselves,” she lamented.

Syed Mustafa, another parent who had come to drop off his daughter and son in class II and UKG, respectively, said, “Teaching is a noble profession and all teachers should have that in their minds at all times.”  

He rued that Wednesday’s meeting was completely taken over by politicians and that the school management should hold another meeting exclusively with the parents so as to instil confidence about the institution.

Another parent whose two sons study in class II and IX differed. He said, “There are 1,200 students and given the fee structure, the management is doing a good job. For the crime committed by one person, the entire school should not be blamed. The students have already lost a week of classes,” he said.

The parent of a girl studying in Class X said, “The fears and insecurities are still there and it will take some time for the parents to feel fine.”

She said that the school management had promised to compensate the loss of classes by curtailing Christmas holidays.