Student safety: Schools instructed to carry out verification before employing drivers

The UT education department has directed city schools to carry out prior verification of individuals before employing them as drivers or conductors to ensure safety of students while commuting on the school transport.

The UT education department has directed city schools to carry out prior verification of individuals before employing them as drivers or conductors to ensure safety of students while commuting on the school transport.

After receiving a memo from Chandigarh's senior superintendent of police (SSP) Sukhchain Singh Gill, informing him that anti-social elements were getting employed as school staff without police verification, district education officer issued a notice to the schools in the city, instructing them to carry out proper verification of their drivers and conductors.

The notice also asked schools to create a separate column for driver verification, stating- "A separate column of driver verification should be created in order to provide a safe and secure conveyance to school children".

Gill claimed that the police was keeping a regular check on school buses to ensure the safety of the students. "Our teams have been keeping an eye on the bus staff and monitoring them. Since we do not want to leave any stone unturned, we have asked the education department for its cooperation,"he said.

Director of public instruction (DPI) (schools) Kamlesh Kumar said the department had been taking the security of students, especially female students very seriously.

"Efforts have been made by the department to ensure the safety of female students in the school buses and thus schools have been directed to the take the necessary actions including thorough verification of the drivers and conductors", he said.

Earlier in May, after a five-year-old student was allegedly molested by the school's bus conductor, UT education secretary Saravjit Singh framed new guidelines for schools which would come into force from July 1. The administration emphasised on the need of deputing a woman attendant in each of the buses ferrying students of schools, coaching centres and employees of call centres.

A global positioning system (GPS) system is also to be installed in the buses to keep a record of the route followed and the vehicle's speed