Schools don’t care a fig about registration norms

​Hyderabad: The School Education Department’s mandate asking private playschools and primary schools to get themselves registered seems to have no takers which in turn is taking a toll on the not only the early childhood education but also the safety of children in the primary and pre-primary schools.

According to sources in the Education department, in Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts alone there are about 5,000 schools running primary and pre-primary sections. Some are only running playschools and others are running primary sections from Class I to V. There are a few others which are running from Class I to Class X.

The schools running classes from VI to X always come forward to get themselves registered for recognition with the School Education department. But, it is the schools running the pre-primary and primary schools have been shying away from getting registered with the department.

However, after a four-year-old Syed Xainab Fatima Jaffery, a student of Sri Chaitanya's Star Kids School in Gaddiannaram had died in a lift accident in 2015 had created ripples in the entire state forcing the Education department submitting a report to the state government.

Following this report, which highlighted the directions of the Apex court orders and the provisions of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE), Act, 2009, the State government had directed all the unaided, aided private schools and schools affiliated to different boards to implement the guidelines of safety and security of the children.

Accordingly, the schools will have to get the security and safety audit done of their premises and personnel from their respective local police station and follow the security-related advice for the safety of the school children. The schools should install CCTV Cameras at all the vulnerable areas and points in the school premises and ensure that they are functional at all times.

Also, it is the responsibility of the school managements that the children traveling by school bus from the time they board the school bus till they are handed over to their parents. Further, employees, who had been earlier found guilty under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POSCO) and Juvenile Justice Act, need to be terminated from the services with immediate effect.

Besides, the schools should implement the Model Education Code of the National University for Educational Planning and Administration, 2015, the comprehensive guidelines on safety and security of children issued by the Union HRD Ministry in 2014, ‘Guidelines for Safe and Effective use of Internet and Digital Technologies in schools and school buses' issued by CBSE in 2017 and the private Play Schools, the regulatory guidelines of the National Commission for Protection of Child rights (NCPCR), 2016 issued on the basis of the National Early Childhood Care and Education, 2013. If the schools are located near disaster-prone areas then the guidelines on School Safety Policy, 2016 by the National Disaster Management Authority has to be implemented.

However, from Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts, the number of play schools came forward to register did not cross even two-digit number. And, only around 1,500 primary schools showed up for registration, the official said.

“The school managements expressed that the guidelines are too tough to be implemented and some have asked to implement the NCPCR guidelines in a phased manner. The higher officials have to take a call on this,” he said.

It was against this backdrop, the Education department is contemplating to extend the date for implementing the NCPCR guidelines by the play schools and primary schools in the state, the sources said. It will help a maximum number of schools to come forward and register, the sources said.