In order to ensure the safety of the school children, the Delhi government has issued fresh guidelines to the schools with special focus on the children traveling to schools in the private vans. Earlier, the government has also urged the parents from hiring private vans for their children claiming that these vehicles are illegal and are a threat to the safety of the children.
“Female teaching or non-teaching staff should be deployed in every vehicle ferrying girl students. In case of private vehicles hired by the parents, the cab drivers’ character and antecedent verification should be provided to the school by the parents,” the guidelines issued by the Directorate of Education (DoE) said.
The government also asked the schools to maintain a register about the students who come to schools in private vans and conduct meeting with the parents every six months to discuss the safety of the children in private vehicles.
“There should be active participation of School Management Committees (SMCs) to persuade parents to use only legal means of transport for their school-going children and follow adequate safeguards for ferrying school students. There must be no use of illegal or over loaded vehicle for transportation of school-going children,” the guidelines read.
“Accompanying teachers must have a contact number of the parents of all the students in case they are going outside the city from their schools. There must be at least one teacher for every 20 students for outside visits. The vehicle carrying girl students must have the requisite number of female staff as per the strength of the students,” the guidelines further said.