School security alarm

(Baonghean)- Recently, incidents related to school security have become a common concern of the whole community.

Concerns about school safety

One of the top concerns that is currently attracting special attention from the public is school violence. This story is not new but is always a hot issue, when reality shows that the incidents that have occurred recently have become increasingly serious.

Not only students fight but even parents use violence in school.

Tai, a student at Le Loi High School (Tan Ky), was beaten by a group of people on motorbikes. Documents

Typically, on October 19, 2017, a parent of a student at Dinh Son Primary School (Anh Son district) went to the school to beat the principal and his child's friend, causing hospitalization.

Not long after that, on November 13, 2017, public opinion was once again outraged when a group of people rode motorbikes into Le Loi High School (Tan Ky district), revved their engines loudly, then beat a student and a teacher who was the school's youth union secretary, forcing them to be hospitalized.

Then there were a series of incidents of female students fighting, filming and posting clips on Facebook in Quynh Luu, Do Luong, Tan Ky...

Traffic safety propaganda for students in Dien Chau. Photo: Phuong Thao

According to statistics from the authorities, in the first 6 months of 2017 alone, there were 22 cases of school violence in the province. In addition, there were cases of students violating the law, violating traffic safety (not wearing helmets, weaving, lining up, swinging on the road during rush hours...) and a number of other issues that significantly affected local political security.

For example, some extremists take advantage of loopholes and shortcomings in the education sector, especially in revenue, expenditure, and socialization of education, to incite parents and students to participate in activities that affect security and order.

Some educational centers and establishments have not been assessed or licensed by competent authorities, and have not registered temporary residence for foreign teachers as required. All of the above issues are causing the whole society to worry about school security - a place that should be considered the safest and healthiest for school-age children.

Inadequacies in management

To strictly control school security, relevant sectors have implemented many solutions. However, in practice, many shortcomings still arise. First is the lack of proper attention from the school side.

For example, some schools in Thanh Chuong and Nam Dan districts defied regulations and allowed some people to enter and market household goods to teachers without encountering any objection.

In October 2017, these subjects sold a fair amount of goods to teachers at Hung Tien and Van Dien 1 primary schools (Nam Dan district) and a number of schools in Thanh Chuong district. After the subjects left the area, the teachers realized that the quality of the goods was not guaranteed, and more importantly, they were too subjective, negligent, and careless in controlling security in the school.

Dinh Son Primary School (Anh Son) - where the incident of parents beating students and the principal occurred. Photo courtesy

Providing more information on this issue, Mr. Nguyen Trong Hoan - Chief of Office of the Department of Education and Training said that through inspections at a number of schools in the province, it was found that many schools did not include school security content in their annual work plan.

“If this content is not included in the plan, how can we implement and pay due attention to this issue? We have recorded a number of cases at educational institutions in Tuong Duong district,” said Mr. Hoan.

Second, the coordination between schools, families and relevant local departments and agencies is not regular and timely. Parents entrust responsibilities to teachers while teachers do not grasp the development of students' thoughts in order to promptly encourage and correct them, and local authorities only intervene when the matter has reached a serious level.

This invisibly loosens the ties between family, school and society. Students show indifference and apathy towards school violence or are not fully equipped to protect themselves against illegal acts.

Not only that, some schools' facilities for educational activities are still lacking, failing to meet the needs to ensure good security and order in schools.

An easily recognizable fact is that although every school has at least one school security guard, this team does not have the necessary health and skills to promptly prevent incidents related to security and order when unexpected situations occur.

Need cooperation

According to statistics from functional sectors, Nghe An province currently has 6 universities, 9 colleges, 14 vocational and professional secondary schools, 538 kindergartens, 542 primary schools, 412 secondary schools, 90 high schools, 21 continuing education centers... with about 1,500,000 students; the teaching staff is about 8,000 people.

With a large number of schools, students and teachers, widely distributed in large and complex areas, the work of stabilizing school security and order is one of the tasks that requires the participation and cooperation of the whole community.

Propaganda and education on school violence in Thanh Chuong district. Photo: Phuong Thao

In recent times, the education sector and the police have implemented regulations to ensure security and order in educational establishments in the province. After 5 years of implementation, it has shown better control and prevention of many complicated incidents that could potentially occur.

Currently, this coordination is being actively promoted. Every 6 months, the two sectors organize a school security conference for general education and vocational schools to exchange information, detect and remove difficulties, obstacles and inadequacies in state management and security and order assurance.

Every year, schools and relevant agencies organize propaganda, legal education, and crime prevention for students (in 2017, 41 propaganda sessions were organized for more than 50,000 students).

In addition, one of the solutions that the police are tightening in the coming time is to check and handle the implementation of regulations on business activities of services and shops near school gates; isolate subjects with bad behavior loitering around school areas... to prevent possible safety risks.

However, in addition to the involvement of functional sectors, to ensure school security, it is necessary to have proper attention from the whole community with specific, practical actions, not indifferent, apathetic, or standing on the sidelines in the face of this urgent situation.

Phuong Thao