Schools and educational institutions are the building blocks of any society and it is in these spaces that future generations learn values fundamental to good society. Due to this centrality, it is essential to ensure that young adults are provided with the optimal conditions to excel and develop. But the recent proposal of the Delhi government may prove detrimental to this aim. The Delhi government recently proposed the introduction of live cameras in school classrooms in a bid to monitor safety of children and ensure transparency in teaching. While CCTV cameras have already been present in many class rooms for various administrative and disciplinary purposes, this particular proposal, will allow consenting parents to have access to a live relay in-order to keep a tab on the children, and their teachers as well. While the importance of CCTVs in maintaining a secure environment in public spaces cannot be denied, this particular proposal crosses the boundary between maintaining security and conducting excessive surveillance.
For education to be successfully imparted, it is essential that students of all ages be free from apprehension and able to express themselves. For this to happen, it is important that a conducive and open relationship between teachers and students exists. The recent proposal by the Delhi government would prove to be a roadblock in the development of this relationship by allowing parents to interfere in classroom activities. The profession of teaching, especially in schools, comes with a unique set of challenges and responsibilities which require teachers to engage with students in an imaginative and unique manner. This requires highly skilled and trained professionals to perform the tasks. Most parents, even if successful in their own professions, are not trained to perform the tasks of a teacher. Moreover, legal and tech experts argue that this move will breach the privacy of children and negatively impact their mental growth. It also opens the gateway to misuse of classroom access by parents and external hackers. Thus, allowing external access to classroom activities will not only create an impediment to an open and conducive learning environment, but also involves a lot of risk and privacy concerns.
By making the proposal, the Delhi government has shown how little it understands or respects the teaching profession. Unfortunately, engineers, doctors, and IT professionals are valued more than teachers in our society. Many have sadly forgotten the dedication and hard work put forth by our teachers in ensuring bright future for their pupils. One has to remember that the individuals associated with this profession are not paid high wages and are mainly motivated by their dedication to helping the next generation. If India aims to progress further, it has to ensure that the teaching community is accorded adequate respect and children are free from constant surveillance which could cause potential psychological harm. In regard to cyber security, our country doesn’t have a data protection scheme that could protect citizens’ data, questions on who would be custodians of this data, data storage and access issues along with potential utilisation and monetisation of the data remain unanswered.