 EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Mar 11: School Safety is a key concern of the Government and need to be addressed as a top priority, said Commissioner Secretary School Education, Hirdesh Kumar while making inaugural remarks during two day Consultative meet on “Risk Informed Education and School Safety in Jammu & Kashmir”.
Addressing the gathering, Hirdesh Kumar Singh said that School Safety and School Security go hand in hand as an integral aspect of education sector planning. Therefore, Child Protection plays an important role in ensuring the safety and security of children, whether at home or in schools, he said adding that Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) devastates a victim for lifetime. According to Ministry of Women and Child Development estimate, 53% of children have faced Child Sexual Abuse in their lives, he added.
Hirdesh stressed that School Safety is of paramount importance in a region like Jammu & Kashmir which is a high-risk Union Territory especially with regard to various natural calamities, civil unrest and this impacts the education of children the most.
Later, Commissioner Secretary unveiled posters on ‘School Safety’ to be provided to Schools.
The workshop which was organized by Directorate of Samagra Shiksha in association with UNICEF INDIA commenced here today with its formal inauguration by Commissioner Secretary School Education, Hirdesh Kumar.
The objective of this workshop was to review the work done on School Safety till date and prepare a roadmap for Risk Informed Programming in Education/School Safety for Jammu & Kashmir.
Senior officers from Department of School Education, academicians, experts working in the field of School Safety and Education besides NGOs participated in the programme.
Pertinently, UNICEF has previously been working on this issue and has done groundbreaking work on School Safety in Jammu and Kashmir.
Experts from UNICEF, Danish Aziz conducted technical sessions and apprised the audience that MHRD had issued the National School Safety Guidelines drafted by NDMA 2016 with instructions to follow them as a framework in 2017.
Director School Education, Anuradha Gupta, who was also present during the programme, reiterated that School Safety is not only about concepts of disaster and emergencies, it also encompasses issues of child protection- such as bullying, corporal punishment, online safety and so on.
Later, Dr Arun Manhas, State Project Director, Samagra Shiksha told that it’s a fact that children spend a considerable amount of their time in school and are exposed to risks of abuse, violence, disasters, health concerns and other forms of risks to their safety that arise from the location of the school.
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