Parents to get real-time access to CCTV footage of classrooms

Parents whose children study in Delhi government schools will have real-time access to CCTV footage of classrooms to ensure transparency and safety of children, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced on Wednesday.

"Each parent will be given access to footage of his child studying in class on real-time basis on his phone. This will make the whole system transparent and accountable. It will ensure safety of kids," Kejriwal tweeted.

In a meeting attended by Education Minister Manish Sisodia, Public Works Department Minister Satyender Jain, Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash and officials of the Education Department, Kejriwal reviewed the progress of installation of CCTVs in classrooms in all government schools.

In September last year, Sisodia had on ordered all schools -- private and government -- to install CCTVs to cover their whole campuses.

The directive came amid increased concerns over the safety in schools after the killing of a seven-year-old student in Gurugram's Ryan International School.

Following the incident, the Central Board of Secondary Education had issued a circular to lay down steps to ensure safety of children in schools, including installation of closed-circuit televisions on school campuses and police verification and psychometric evaluation of all staff members.

The process of installation of CCTVs in schools is expected to start within three months.

Once the project is implemented, the Education Minister, Education Department's Secretary and Director will have the rights to view any classroom of any government school through a mobile application at any point of time.

There would be an auto complaint system to check non-functioning of these CCTVs.

The auto system would itself lodge a complaint which will then go to the system integrator who would then ensure correct functioning of the CCTV concerned.

--IANS

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