The Hindu 05.03.2013
Civic body to hold emergency training camp for Principals
Intends to make schools responsible for their students
A day before the inquiry report on the rape of a seven-year-old girl in a municipal school is submitted to the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, the civic body’s Education Committee has called for an “emergency training camp” for all its school Principals. The camp, which is scheduled to be held this Wednesday and Thursday, will target the Principals of all the 780 municipal schools under its jurisdiction.
“Our main objective is to make the staff take responsibility of the students when they are within the school premises. We will be training them and conducting a sensitisation programme,” said NDMC Education Committee Chairman Rekha Gupta. “This is so we can hold them responsible and accountable for the security of each student in their school,” she added.
School boundaries may go up, CCTVs installed
The training will only target principals since they are the implementing agency, she said. Another high-powered meeting on Tuesday will take decisions on the height of boundary walls in municipal schools and the installations of CCTV cameras, said the Committee Chairman.
The North Corporation will bear all the medical and legal costs borne by the family of the seven-year-old girl.
Following the incident on Saturday five employees were suspended including the Principal. The school inspector, class teacher, attendant and chowkidar were the others who received suspension orders from Corporation Commissioner P. K. Gupta. He also constituted a five-member committee to probe the incident.
In the budget proposal finalised by the education committee last December, the civic body had recommended allocating additional funds for CCTV camera, arranging security guards, extension of fencing walls and providing mobile chips to all principals for more connectivity in all municipal schools.
