As a part of the State- wide strike called by the Madhya Pradesh Private School Association, all the private schools in the city will remain closed on Tuesday. The strike has been called to protest against the State Government’s decision to fix responsibility on schools to ensure the safety of children.
Earlier, the Transport Department had issued strict warnings to schools to install GPS and CCTV cameras in school buses. The steps to reign in private schools were taken after the tragic school bus accident in Indore that had killed five children and the driver. At that time the RTO had told the school authorities that any school found violating the rules would face stringent penal actions.
Since then the RTO and the police have been conducting regular raids and confiscating school buses that hadn’t installed the gadgets and those that didn’t possess the fitness certificate. The District Administration too had issued strict warnings to schools to ensure the safety of children.
In this regard the Administration had issued certain guidelines to be followed by the schools and had made it clear that the school management will be responsible for any mishappening. The administration’s move to limit the speed of school buses too is a point of contention.
Alarmed at the severity of the guidelines and the subsequent punitive actions, the private schools have decided to protest by keeping the schools closed for a day.
Vinod Sharma, Director of National Blossom School said that the rules and regulations in this regard are too harsh and not sensible. Practically, it would not be possible to comply with such dictates. He further said that the school management is taking every possible step to ensure the safety of children, but it won’t be possible to oversee their safety once they have left the school premises.