Education dept gives go-ahead to school picnics but with safety clauses

Education dept gives go-ahead to school picnics but with safety clauses

 

As most school representatives asserted the same point, Jadhav said that the revised guidelines would not issue any ban 

Doing a volte face after a review meeting with a few stakeholders, the deputy director of education Thursday set new guidelines allowing schools to take children to picnics, provided adequate safety measures are taken well in advance. The move comes after he faced flak rom all quarters, including the education minister, over an arbitrary ban on school trips to beaches, rivers, forts or water parks after the Murud beach tragedy.

On February 3, two days after the Murud tragedy in which 14 students of a city college drowned, deputy director of education Ramchandra Jadhav had issued a 27-point guideline to all education officers putting a blanket ban on picnics to beaches, rivers, adventure parks and even out-of-state destinations.At Modern College, representatives of various education departments, school and college management representatives and teachers’ union were present for the review meeting but surprisingly parents, who are important stakeholders, were not present. They had allegedly not been invited for the crucial meeting.

“Rather than putting an absolute ban on picnics to such places, you should have said take picnics after due care and precaution. Also, it is insulting to ask a school principal to give an affidavit on Rs 100 bond paper that they will adhere to guidelines, merely sending declaration on plain paper should be sufficient,” said Dr Gajanan Ekbote, chairman of Progressive Education Society.

As most school representatives asserted the same point, Jadhav said that the revised guidelines would not issue any ban. “New guidelines will say due care must be taken before taking any such trips. Also principals don’t have to sign any bond,” he said.

Other points that were discussed and changed included the ban imposed on out-of-state school trips, which was put in the earlier GR. The condition of not taking trips for more than one day was also revised and Jadhav said that depending on the age of student and need of syllabus, duration of trips can be decided. After much deliberation on what should be the teacher-student ratio, it was decided to revise the ratio from1:10 teacher-student ratio to 1:20. While earlier guidelines said primary school picnics should end by 5pm, the new guidelines would say by the end of the day, said Jadhav.

As most experts spoke about the need for some precautions before trips, Jadhav said that few additional points in new guidelines would be mandatory like all school/junior colleges will have to organise a committee for planning trips. “All proposals will be put before this committee which will review the security measures at that spot by either sending two teachers or writing to local administration to get complete information about the spot. It would be mandatory to seek permission of the school or college management body as well as local education officers before the trip as well as a

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