Schools race to meet council’s CCTV deadline

KOLKATA: The Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE)’s December 5 directive to all affiliated schools asking them to install closed circuit television cameras on school premises within a fortnight has sent institutes clamouring to meet the deadline that ends on Tuesday.
Benny Thomas, principal of St Xavier’s Collegiate School, said, “We already have 80 CCTV cameras and have placed an order with our vendor to install 160 more at strategic places.” Principal of Rammohan Mission School Sujoy Biswas said, “We have implemented the instructions sent by CISCE and added 28 new CCTV cameras in addition to the 62 we already had.Another eight will be installed in the next few days. New cameras have been put up at the main entrance and stairways.”

The Heritage School principal, Seema Sapru, pointed out that they already had CCTV cameras in place, way before the council’s instructions arrived. “We have now installed cameras in two school buses, along with GPS systems. We have around 80 school buses and each will be fitted with CCTV cameras and GPS by the time we reopen after winter break on January 3.”
Other schools will make good use of the winter break to comply with the CCTV mandate. T H Ireland, principal of St James School, added, “It is a coincidence that our month-long winter vacation starts from December 15. We have already given out orders and CCTV cameras will be installed by the time the school reopens. In my school, we have 60-odd CCTV cameras and need 25 more. In most cases, we have to put them up outside classrooms.” He added that installations could not be carried out during class hours.
John Bagul, principal of South City International School, has decided to install 30 CCTV cameras during the holidays, in addition to the existing 200. “We will put them up in sensitive areas, including auditoriums and green rooms,” Bagul said.
Sharmistha Banerjee, principal of Vivekananda Mission School, agreed with Bagul. “Our vacation is scheduled to start from December 22 and will continue for 10 days. At the moment, we have 20-22 CCTV cameras, which will be increased to 55. We have decided to go by the instructions given out by CISCE and install them in every place which they have suggested,” she said.