Schools give suggestions to panel

With the State government forming an expert committee headed by former MLC, M C Nanaiah, to look into cases of sexual assault on children and women, school associations have started giving suggestions to the panel on how to prevent and deal with such cases in educational institutions.

The Karnataka Associated Managements of English Medium Schools (KAMS) has suggested framing of guidelines for parents to assure their responsibility and introducing an education protection bill to protect institutions from any misconduct during such cases, among other things.

Stressing the demand for uniform rules on child safety in schools, the association said in a statement, “The government should ensure a comprehensive guideline keeping in mind various types of schools. With their diversified guidelines, curriculum, fee structure, infrastructure, all schools are not alike.”

In the aftermath of back-to-back rapes in as many schools in Bengaluru last year, both the police and the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) had issued similar guidelines, leading to confusion among schools. The statement further said: “Guidelines should be enforced only by the concerned authorities who are the education department and not any other.”

Meanwhile, the Karnataka Unaided School Managements’ Association (Kusma) is in the process of submitting its own suggestions to the committee. K V Dhananjay, counsel for the association, said that Kusma would correspond with the committee and submit its recommendations soon.

“We hope this committee will take positive steps to ensure safety of children in schools. The DPI has been really cold and unresponsive to any suggestion on improving child safety.”