Most parents visit the school in order to enquire about the admission procedure and other details like fees. However, they neglect to ask their counsellor at the school about crucial things like safety and security.
They do not ask questions like:
- What measures do you have to ensure that our kids are safe at your school?
- How many security guards do you have?
- Are they well trained?
- What are you doing to protect our children from any kind of harm?
The counsellors, on the other hand, focus on what they want the parents to listen to. These include details like:
- academic affiliation like CBSE or ICSE etc
- digital resources
- qualifications of teachers
- spacious classrooms
- fees, books, uniforms
While these details are important, they come at the expense of the most important factor: your kids’ safety and security. What use will be details like academic board and learning tabs if they can’t take care of children?
Here are 7 things you should keep an eye on while going to a school for counselling.
1. CCTV Cameras
CCTV cameras are found everywhere. And for good reason. Because they can help trace the source of the problem.
When you walk into a school, notice the number of cameras around you. Ask your counsellor questions about how many of these CCTV cameras are working and if they’re used regularly to cross-check anything.
2. Fences
Does the school have well-defined boundaries? Is it easy for any outsider or unauthorized person to walk in?
A fenced campus also helps in keeping children from stepping out of the school.
3. Guarded Entrance
How the security personnel behave at the entrance of the school speaks volumes about the safety measures followed in the school.
Notice if they’re alert.
The entrance is the most obvious point of contact between the students and outsiders. It has got to be well-guarded.
4. ID Cards
ID cards are not meant for torturing students. They’re there for a valid reason: to identify who’s a student and who’s not.
More importantly, students come in uniforms. Grown-ups don’t.
So the teachers and other staff ought to be have the ID cards too. Because it’s the grown-ups in the school who need to be identified well.
Check how many staff members, teachers or not, are in possession of their ID cards.
5. Security Training
Most schools stop at the regular details of CCTV cameras, fences, security at the gate, and ID cards.
However, the safety and security goes beyond these visible markers.
In order to be called truly safe and secure, an organization should be updated with news sources of threat and new ways to tackle them.
You’ll not be able to see it for yourself in the school but you can ask your counsellor. How well-trained are the security guards?
It helps even more if the students too are made familiar with the security protocols.
6. Security Alarms
When we think of security, the first word to come to mind is the CCTV cameras. However, security alarms are equally important.
Security alarms help alert the entire building if the need arises. The presence of security alarms also shows that the team is well-versed with security methods.
Because when the alarm rings, depending on the location where the alert has gone off, specific teams are supposed to rush to the scene and the others are expected to cover other areas.
7. Access Cards
If you’re visiting the school, chances are that you’d be given an exclusive visitor’s card, or access card.
Specially dedicated access cards for outsiders are a sign that the school monitors who’s entering the school, at what time and for what purpose.
This means that no outsider can step into the school without the knowledge of the security in-charge.
The 7 measures explained above are indicators of how prepared the school is to handle any potential security threats.
Some of these are visible and some you’ll need ask the counsellor for yourself.
While looking for a school, you’ve got to go beyond the obvious. Safety and security are on every parent’s mind. But most people neglect to raise any questions.
The above list of 7 measures will hopefully empower you.
Do you recall if any of these measures were observed in a school you may visited lately?