The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Older schools have better safety system

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 21, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Older schools have better safety system

Sudipto Mondal

Bangalore: Older, more established schools seem to have a more efficient structural and practical safety system in place, if the six city schools, that The Hindu visited on Thursday, are anything to go by. These schools, which are s ituated in the areas surrounding Airport Road, Jeevan Bima Nagar and Indiranagar, have been around for more than 25 years and have developed a safety mechanism through a process of trial and error.

The managements of National Public School (NPS), New Horizon Public School, Indiranagar Cambridge School are points in case. They seem to have developed an intricate and multi-tiered, safety system involving not only the teachers, helpers and security personnel but also senior students.

Showing this reporter around the school premises, associate principal of NPS Shanta Chandran pointed out that there is a staff room on each floor of the school building that enables adult supervision at all times.

Each floor has fire extinguishers, and there are no open parapets in the senior student’s block, for curious students to peep from — all the corridors with parapets here have been enclosed with either grills or windows that go up to the ceiling.

According to principal of the pre-primary classes Sharmila Mirchandani of New Horizon School, the pre-primary children come in to the school half-an-hour after the rest of the students and leave much earlier.

This, she explained, allows the school authorities to fully concentrate on the safety of the toddlers.

She added that two helpers are on duty in every floor during school hours and one helper compulsorily accompanies the children in the school buses.

But even these schools had areas to improve.

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