TURA: The District Administration, West Garo Hills, Tura conducted a meeting on Wednesday evening at DRDA Conference Hall, Tura to sensitize all schools with regard to Right To Education (RTE) Act, NCPCR guidelines on Child Safety and Security in schools, POCSO Act 2012 and other statutes.
The West Garo Hills, Deputy Commissioner, Ram Singh, Additional Deputy Commissioner, Zenithsky Sangma, Superintendent of Police, WGH Dr M G R Kumar, Vice-President, Meghalaya State Commission for Women, G T R Marak, officials from District Child Protection Unit, Tura, Education Department and Heads of various institutions of West Garo Hills District including Dadenggre Sub-Division were present at the meeting.
During the meeting, the Deputy Commissioner Ram Singh expressed his gratitude to the Heads of all Private schools for providing quality education for students studying in their respective schools in the district and opine that even though there are many government and government aided schools, but still parents prefer to send their wards to private school for the reasons best known to them.
While instructing all the heads of schools to follow the Manual for Safety and Security of school students, the Deputy Commissioner highlighted the key issues of the manual and informed that Corporal punishment includes physical punishment, mental harassment and discrimination in any form which are banned under the RTE Act 2009. Further, he also stated that all teachers including helpers must be sensitized by the respective schools on various provisions of RTE Act, NCPCR guidelines and provisions under POCSO Act. He also mentioned about the need to form Anti-bullying committee and Grievance Committee on Child Sexual Abuse in all schools.
Moreover, he advised them to follow the fire safety norms, installation of CCTV cameras in school premises, emergency exit, barrier free access for disability students, safety measures in school transport system, maintenance of cleanliness and hygiene amongst others. Further, he said that Casarina Public School, Tura has adhered to these safety norms with installation of fire extinguishers, CCTV cameras, emergency exit, construction of ramps etc, in their school premises. He also urge other schools to install fire safety measures at the earliest and to install CCTV cameras wherever possible. While mentioning about those schools that have double storey school buildings, he directed them to keep the kindergarden children in the ground floor of the building and also to have sufficient staff to usher small children in case of emergencies.
Further, the Deputy Commissioner has suggested the school heads to follow the prescribed weight limit of school bags for each class and to formulate guidelines to regulate the teaching of subjects and weight of bags in accordance with the Government of India instructions and also to comply with homework ban for students of class I and II.
As per the order, the weight of the school bags for students of classes I and II should not exceed 1.5 KG, while the school bag of students of class III to V should weigh between 2 Kg to 3 Kg. Further, the school bag of students of classes VI and VII should not be more than 4 Kg, while for classes VIII and IX students it should not be above 4.5 Kg. The school bag for class X student should not weigh above 5 Kg, the order said.
Meanwhile, the Superintendent of Police, Dr M G R Kumar highlighted on the aspects of the various provisions of the POCSO Act and the sections of the IPC so as to ensure that they know these rules under which the offender can be penalised. He also mentioned that all staff and teachers need police verification including those newly appointed teachers need to submit a signed affidavit for better management by the school authorities. He also spoke about the formation of School Management Committee and parent –teacher committee where parents and teachers should be included in the committee.
Vice-President, Meghalaya State Commission for Women, Gamchi T R Marak shared her experiences about various cases relating to children and women in the district and said that most of the time we tend to neglect the emotional behaviour of the student thus resulting in negative impact in the growth of the child. She therefore, seeks cooperation and support from all to address any issue relating to children and make the people aware of their rights and privileges in future.
District Child Protection Officer, Tura, Investigating Officer, Tura Police Station were among others who spoke during the meeting. The same kind of sensitization programme will be held for all government schools in the coming days.