Parents’ body formed to keep tab on kids’ safety at school premises

HYDERABAD: In the wake of recent sexual harassment cases at schools and incompetence of the education department to deal with them, parents have formed an association and come up with a set of guidelines to keep their wards safe.

Telangana Parents Association for Child Rights and Safety (TPACRS), which came up with the guidelines, said that parents and police should be made stakeholders and should be given responsibility of looking after safety and security of students.

“Parents should be asked to volunteer for an hour or so in schools to look after safety of their wards. This method is followed in the western countries and is very efficient. Also, as the school education department has failed miserably at ensuring security of children in educational institutions, police should be involved and make sure that schools are following all the guidelines,” said Mohammed Asif Hussain Sohail, president, TPACRS adding that there are about 11,000 parents in the association.

The parents further said that movements of primary students inside the campus should be completely monitored and police verification should be made mandatory for all staff. They said that e-learning courses should be designed on child safety guidelines and that schools should be assessed based on them”

“School campus should be divided into specific areas and have caretakers, parents or other volunteers, monitor the place all day long, especially during breaks. Further, a student should not be allowed to leave campus without a permission slip. School access for private car drivers should be controlled. Security should check the identification card and the pickup card of drivers before letting a student leave the campus,” said Obedullah Bin Abdullah, a parent.