Electronic Security For Schools & Other Educational Institutions

In recent years, there have been instances wherein the children have been molested in schools, some children have been kidnapped by drivers who take them to and from schools. Unfortunately, the school authorities raise their hands up or try to suppress the mishap or palm it off to some other aspect. Many educational institutions are clueless whether their students attend classes or otherwise. The attendance roll also does not help as there are many proxies who submit attendance of their friends who are absent.

I will first tackle the issue of safety of children in schools. The threats involved are as follows:-

·         Molestation of a child while in school in toilets or other locations which are away from the eyes of school management.

·         School management being unaware whether the child has left school or otherwise.

·         Molestation of a child in school bus or other transport.

·         Kidnapping while on way home in a transport.

There is a requirement of installing CCTV cameras at the entrance and exit of toilets. One cannot install CCTV camera inside the toilet as it is unethical and also compromises privacy of the students. The CCTV cameras can be connected to a video recording device, termed as DVR. The recordings can be kept for 30 days and after that it can be automatically erased by means of software called video analytics. The video analytic software also has a feature which emits an alarm if after at a particular time there is a movement in the area which is not expected to be visited by anyone. For night viewing of the video, the cameras can be equipped with Infra Red devices. These aspects can help in identifying a culprit and can also be used to set up an alarm if the particular area has been intruded upon after the school is closed.   

In order to check whether the child has left the school or otherwise, the school authorities can install a chip on the identity card of each student. The chip will have details of the child. The technique is known as RFID. Readers located at various places in the school premises read each chip and store the data in the system, this data can be checked to identify time at which the child was at the particular location. The data regarding entry of the child in the school, visit to various locations which are sensitive from safety point of view and exit from school premises can be noted by the system and the same can be retrieved when required. If such a system is installed, there is no requirement of class attendance calls as the presence of the child is already recorded in the system.

There are three ways to obviate molestation of a child while in transport. If the school has its own buses, CCTV cameras with DVR can be installed to keep an eye on the events that take place in the bus. The child can also be given a watch like device mounted with GPS and an alarm. The location of the child can be traced by parents/school authorities either on smart phones or laptop/computer. In case the child senses danger, he/she can activate the alarm on the device and intimate the parents or school authorities. Each school bus should be installed with a GPS device to facilitate check on its location. If the bus deviates from the specified route an alarm can be set up at control centre in school premises and the driver can be accosted or Police can be intimated.

Educational institutions imparting education to children above 16 years of age can keep a check on entry and exit of the students by installing an RFID chip in the identity card to obviate all issues related to attendance or location of the student in institute premises. There are bio metric devices in form of finger print/palm reader or iris reader available which defeats the attendance by a proxy. Many institutions prefer bio metric devices.

CCTV cameras have also been installed by many schools in class rooms, these cameras are a good source to keep a check on activities of teachers as well as students while they are in classrooms.  

It may be noted that above aspects will cost money, but they will ensure adequate safety of children and will also keep the culprits away from committing heinous crimes. I am quite sure that parents will not mind a little extra payment to school authorities to ensure fool proof safety of their children.