Health, safety, now parameters for grading of schools

Additions come in the wake of recent incidents in educational institutions

Karnataka State Quality Assessment and Accreditation Council (KSQAAC) will include a parameter of ‘health and safety’ for grading of schools from the year 2015-16.

The KSQAAC has five basic indicators on the basis of which schools are graded: namely physical environment and facilities, community participation, leadership, learning environment and innovative practices.

“We have decided to give importance to health and safety as a means to grade schools based on a number of incidents and accidents that have been taking place in schools in the past few years.”

“Safety of children in schools must be ensured. This will be included under the larger indicator of physical environment and facilities,” said V S Geetha, Deputy Director, KSQAAC.

The health and safety parameter will require schools to include measures such as regular medical checkups and inspections, emergency display boards with information of the nearest hospital and other emergency numbers, maintenance of an updated stock of medicines, prominently displaying signs on prohibition of the use of tobacco in or around the school, to name a few.

CCTV cameras
Under the same parameter, the installation of CCTV cameras in schools has been added as a criteria.

Following a steady rise in the cases of physical and sexual abuse in schools, the government had made it mandatory for all schools to instal CCTVs.

However, the government cracked the whip on private and unaided schools to fulfill this requirement but there has been no work yet on the same so far as government schools are concerned.

The safety and health of students in schools has become a huge concern in the past few years. Besides the grave issue of sexual abuse in schools, various other cases have also been reported.

Children falling into sambar vessels in government schools during the their mid-day meals have been reported at several parts of the State. In April this year, there was an incident of a boy drowning in a school’s pool in the City.

Even private aided and unaided schools will also have to comply with the new indicator in addition parameter, said the official.

V.P. Niranjan Aradhya, fellow at the Centre for Child and the Law, National Law School of India University said, “It was only after incidents of physical and sexual abuse in schools that school managements and the government woke up to importance of safety and protection of children. Prior to such cases there was hardly any importance given to these aspects. It is a good move on the part of KSQAAC to include these aspect in the process of grading schools,” he said.