Cop questionnaire to all schools soon as part of safety audit

Nagpur: In a first for the city, all schools will now be asked by cops to fill up a questionnaire as part of the security audit of both the schools' premises and staff. By this weekend, the questionnaire will be available to schools at their local police station and has to be submitted at the earliest to enable cops to complete a comprehensive review. Shivaji Bodkhe, joint commissioner of police, said, "The questionnaire and a visit to school will be the base for us to prepare an audit report."

Even the CBSE has formed a special committee to form guidelines for safety in schools and for conducting audits and psychometric tests of staff. CBSE officials have assured all schools will get ample time to comply with the new guidelines that will include infrastructure changes as well (CCTVs etc).

On Wednesday, state board and CBSE schools association chiefs were briefed by city cops about the questionnaire and the process that will follow. Shweta Khedkar, DCP, Nagpur Police, said, "The questionnaire is ready and we just need to add a few more points that came up during discussion with school associations. The other part is police verification of all staff members in schools and that will be handled as per the regular procedure."

Radhika Mehra, chairperson of Nagpur Sahodaya Schools Complex (NSSC) said, "It's good that we have some clarity now on how things will shape up. Once the questionnaire is given to us, things can start moving and we can also implement whatever recommendations are made."

The other two state board schools association chiefs, Madhusudhan Mude (Headmasters Association) and Zafar Khan (Urdu Schools Association) agreed the new system would bring in a formal structure that can be adhered to in the following years. Mude said, "This auditing of school premises is a completely new concept and everybody is learning about it on the go. At least the groundwork is now being laid and very soon we can define what a safe and secure school premises looks like."

Khan felt continuous campaign of creating awareness must be part of the process. "We have to empower our children to identify what is right and wrong, and have the courage always to speak up. While assessing a school's premises, it is important to take into account the effort the school puts into creating awareness about such things," said Khan.