Powers limited to improve safety: MCD school principals
The Civic bodies may have asked their schools to improve safety of students in the wake of rape of a seven-year-old girl but principals feel it would be difficult to comply with the order given the scope of their powers.
Principals of a number of municipal schools said though they have been told to improve the environment inside their schools, it will be tough task if councillors and municipal officials do not change their attitude.
“We have to depend on different departments to get any work done. At times we feel helpless and powerless. Our financial powers are very limited which need to be expanded urgently for running the schools efficiently,” said a principal.
Citing another example of the shoddy state of affairs at MCD schools, a principal, who has been in the profession for over two decades, said it was an ordeal to even carry out maintenance work of the school building.
“In my school, the complaint about the building having developed a crack was lodged by my predecessor in 2001. And no one has bothered to address the situation, despite my constant reminders,” he said. “If you look at the outer Delhi area, where this incident happened, there is an urgent need to have boundary walls all around the school for security but that is not the case on the ground,” he said.
A seven-year-old girl was raped in a school run by North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) on March 1, following which all the the three municipal bodies had asked principals to improve safety of students in the schools.
The NDMC organised a training session for teachers few days back and councillors speaking at the session even admitted that principals were indeed in a bind.
“The councillors are hardly ever available to solve our problems. But we try to keep the officials in good humour and forge some kind of friendship with them so that they will be sympathetic to our needs in case some problem arises,” said another principal.
Post new comment