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Goa Schools to be under Surveillance, to protect against terrorist attacks

We cannot avoid the natural disaster or ill fated accidents, but we can surely overcome the planned attacks. To avoid such unforeseen circumstances which may
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We are living on the edge with the risk to the life is growing by the day; especially our children are more prone to these as they stay away from us for almost half a day attending the school. The recent case of the group of school children were met with an accident in Canacona Goa, while travelling in ill fated rickshaw, resulting in severe casualty. In another case 16 year old student was dashed by the high speeding jeep in Ponda while crossing the road resulting into her death or the case of sexual abuse in the school premises with the small children is another factor which is still haunting the state.

We cannot avoid the natural disaster or ill fated accidents, but we can surely overcome the planned attacks. To avoid such unforeseen circumstances which may happen to our children while they are in the school, the department of Education has released the SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) to all the schools in Goa to deal with any terrorist attacks on the school, which also includes the other aspects such as Kidnapping of School children, Random firing with intention of mass killing of children inside the school, planting of explosive devices in the premises of the school or so on.

The procedure issued by the Ministry of Women and Child Development to the local police stations to indentify or make the list of prominent / high profile schools in their jurisdiction for the purpose of SOP “Each school should have a concrete boundary wall, with 3 to 4 gates and each gate should be manned by at least 3 guards on a 24-hour basis,” proposed the SOP pointing out that a telephone connection should be provided at the main gate of the school so that the guards can inform the police in case of any emergency without waiting to inform the nodal officer or the principal.

Communicating the preventive measures to the schools, the SOP further instructed them to maintain the proper illumination along the school boundary, installation of CCTV system over it to monitor the movement of suspicious persons. The Schools have also been asked to make the provision of walkie talkie sets to make the communication easier between security guards and nodal officer, the provision of centralized public announcement system between nodal officer and all classes, library etc., a visual anti-sabotage check of the entire school by the by the security staff before arrival of children in the morning and finally seting up of an alarm system in the school.

Discussing on the kidnapping of the children at time of their arrival and departure from the school, SOP has set the guidelines for the guards on duty and nodal officer to communicate any unforeseen condition with the local police on immediate basis with proper description of the persons, vehicle and its colour, registration number etc. It also mentions that guard should immediately rush the remaining children on the road into the school premises and finally pressing the alarm bell.  In the event of firing on the road near school the guards should carry out the similar exercise, says SOP, in case of any injuries the children should be rushed to the hospital.

According the SOP, in case the terrorist launches an armed attack on the school and holds the teachers, principal, students or others as hostage, the police should be informed and the children not in possession of terrorist to be separated from the danger zone. Keeping the check on any explosive devices planted in the premises and all the people in school should be warned against touching any unidentified objects. In case of bomb scare the children should not be gathered in one place without proper check of that area. The SOP also suggest need of mock drill on the regular basis to prepare the children and the staff to deal with the unwanted situation.

Besides following all the recommendations suggested by the SOP it is the duty of all the vigilant citizens and parents to prepare our children to fight against any such unforeseen siltation by guiding them to follow certain guidelines, such as not trusting the unknown persons, not touching the unidentified objects in school premises and to raise the alarm in case of any of the above happens by getting in touch with outside the school via the available medium of communications. In fact allowing the children to carry the mobile phones to the school with necessary permission and guidelines will help a lot in such kind of situation. Your comments on this will be most valuable as you are also connected somewhere somehow to this system and you never know one them could be your kid?

Source: IANS    

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