In a first of its kind, more than 4,000 students of Class 8 from across Karnataka will be imparted police training as part of the scaled-up version of the Student Police Cadet (SPC) programme.
Students from 96 State and Central government schools have been roped in for the SPC programme. Out of these, three are girls schools and one is boys school.
The remaining 92 are co-education schools. The programme has been launched as part of the initiative by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The programme intends to introduce a robust interface between the police and students through lectures on how society can partner with police for peace and public safety. Volunteer police officers will deliver these talks. Apart from this, students will be enlightened on environmental protection, social harmony and respect for senior citizens.
Additional Director General of Police, Karnataka State Reserve Police, Bhaskar Rao, who is also the nodal officer for the programme, said out of the three schools selected in each district, one is under the Union government while the remaining two are run by the state government. Schools in remote and underdeveloped areas have been selected for the programme, he added.
“The SPC activities will be held for 80 minutes every week on the last working day of the week, after the school hours. The Central and state governments have earmarked Rs 3.38 cr for the programme on 60:40 sharing basis.”
The Bureau of Police Research and Development is training five master trainers from every state so that they can in turn train volunteer trainers from police stations. The KSRP has trained officials from 13 KSRP units and the programme has already started in most of the schools.
Dr K Tyagarajan, Deputy Inspector General, KSRP, said that students will be taught health and hygiene, family and social values, awareness about traffic rules, disaster management, defence forces and communication technology.
“This year only Class 8 students are participating in the programme. Next year, we will train students of Class 9 also. The consent of students and parents will be obtained for training,” he said.
The state government had launched a similar programme in 2015 in some few districts.
DH News Service
Over 4,000 eighth grades from all over Karnataka will be trained as police officers
The central and state governments have kept Rs 3.38 cr for the programme under 60-40 fund sharing
Students from 96 State-run and Central government schools have been roped in for the (SPC) project
