Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has introduced watching eyes in government schools in the capital. His objective is to ensure transparency and accountability. It is also aimed at ensuring the safety of boys. True there have been disturbing incidents in Delhi’s schools. In Gurgaon, one student was murdered by another. There has been a rape in a Delhi institution. No wonder parents and the whole community are greatly alarmed; Kejriwal has put in CCTV cameras in classrooms of some schools. Such surveillance however may do more harm than good. The probing eyes meant to relieve parents are at odds with the modern education system or even the Tapovan (Education amidst nature) advocated by Rabindranath Tagore. Trust between parents and teachers is an essential basis of the system. Kejriwal’s surveillance code makes teachers and other employees of schools objects of constant scrutiny. It implies that parents have no confidence in the supervision of teachers. The educational system today faces social and pedagogic challenges. Children can access a variety of information through the internet which develops a new relationship between teachers and students. At the same time, incidence of rape and violence should generate a new awareness which cannot be created by cameras planted here and there.
The Aam Aadmi party shows a peculiar propensity to adopt an Orwellian attitude of having Big Brother watching through CCTV cameras. Such a policy may be just right to expose corruption but surveillance in schools with cameras trained on free movement is unhealthy. That turns schools into veritable prisons. The implication of Kejriwal’s policy results in criminalisation of Delhi schools.
