Schools give safety norms a miss

Gurvinder Singh

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, December 22

None of the schools in the district are following preventive measures with precision as mentioned in the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2010. The SOP is supposed to be followed in case of a terrorist attack.

The SOP has to be followed as a mock drill by school authorities to prepare to deal with any attack by extremists.

The CBSE has sent a fresh circular to affiliated schools about the SOP in the wake of the terrorist attack in a Peshawar school. Terming the recent terrorist attack in Peshawar as an eye opener, the circular emphasises that the schools must have an effective mechanism to prevent such an incident.

As per the preventive measures in the SOP, each school should have a concrete boundary wall with 3 to 4 gates and each gate should be manned by at least three guards on 24-hour basis. Details of the telephone numbers of the Police Control Room and local police station in the area should also be displayed at prominent places in the school so that in case of a crisis, anyone in the school may contact the police. A nodal officer may also be nominated to look after the security arrangement in the school. There should be a proper illumination along the perimeter for security at night and concertina wire may be fixed on the iron grills above the boundary wall to deter anyone from jumping off the wall. Installation of CCTV systems, all along the boundary wall, along with some additional locations inside the premises with the recording facilities of at least three days is also mentioned. The system should also have requisite audio video analytics to detect any intrusion and raise an audio as well as visual alarm.The CCTV system alarm may also be connected to the identified gates to close them automatically. A centralised public announcement system and an advanced alarm system to alert the entire the entire staff, principal, students and teachers are also mentioned as preventive measures.

The drill to be carried out by the school authorities to practice the response in case of any contingency is also mentioned in the SOP. The drill is divided into two parts, the first being at the time of arrival or departure of the students and the other when the school is already functional.

The steps to be taken in case of kidnapping of children, random firing on the road near the school, armed intrusion into the school with hostage taking, when suspected explosive object is found in the school or vicinity are also mentioned in the SOP.

Several other suggestions including chalking out list with duties specified by names like which staff members would be responsible for controlling children, who will inform police, hospital authorities, who will inform parents, etc are also mentioned in the SOP. Local police along with school may carry out an advance reconnaissance of the school to prepare operation to deal with any such contingency in future and more such suggestions are mentioned in it as well.

As every terrorist related incident is different, it should be dealt with according to the situation at that time, keeping in mind general guidelines mentioned in the general guidelines of the SOP.