P’kula govt schools lack security

Hina Rohtaki

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, December 22

Let alone high perimeter walls with barbed wires, as per the fresh guidelines issued by the Union Government in the wake of Peshawar attack, Panchkula schools don’t even have proper boundary walls.

A reality check of government schools today revealed that either the boundary walls were broken or not high enough to prevent anyone from scaling them. The terrorist attack on an Army school in Pakistan seems to have failed to wake the school authorities to the need to ensure safety of students.

At Government Primary School, Sector 19, a portion of the boundary wall was completely broken, giving easy access to the school. A teacher, on the condition of anonymity, said: “We have made repeated requests for the repair of the wall, but to no avail.”

At Government Primary School, Sector 15, children were seen scaling the wall easily. At Government High School, Sector 17, where Haryana Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma had conducted a surprise check recently, following which he suspended the block education officer and the principal, grille on the boundary wall was found missing. A similar situation prevailed at government schools in Sector 6 and Sector 20.

District Education Officer Savitri Sihag said: “The estimates are regularly sent to the head office in case any repairs are needed. Repair work at certain schools might not have been taken up on priority. At the government school in Sector 17, I agree, there was a delay.”

Commenting on the directives issued by the Centre, Deputy Commissioner Vivek Atray said: “We are issuing guidelines to all concerned. We will also call a meeting with the police department in this regard.”

Sources in the administration said they would be discussing the feasibility of having an armed security guard at every school with the state government.

According to the directive of the Union Home Ministry, all schools are required to have high perimeter walls with barbed wire, armed guards with a walkie-talkie round-the-clock, surveillance cameras, adequate lighting and regular mock drills.