Security at primary schools ‘ad hoc’

AUDITOR General Jocelyn Thompson has said that most measures implemented over the years to deal with security at primary schools were “ad hoc, short-term and reactive and did not necessarily address the underlying reasons for urgent security needs in the nation’s schools.” She has therefore suggested that consideration be given to formulating long term strategies in a holistic manner to safeguard teachers and students. Her findings are contained in a special audit on security in primary schools, dated September 2004. It was laid in Parliament last Friday. Her report was prompted by the fact that in the annual Public Accounts reports, there was a significant number of reports of thefts and loss of property from schools, despite millions of dollars being spent on security.

The audit was to ascertain whether there existed a “strategic plan to deal with security concerns at primary schools and to assess whether the operational plan that was instituted by the Ministry of Education, to address the security concerns, was in fact effective.” The Auditor interviewed key officials of the Ministry of Education and examined and analysed records maintained for the programme, as well as paid site visits to a number of primary schools. Among the areas looked at were the plans put in place for security measures, systems and controls in terms of the provisions of security services, systems and controls for school repairs and monitoring. The Auditor found that the Educational Planning Division’s draft strategic plan 1995-2004 did not identify a “strategy for the improvement of security at primary schools,” and as such she recommended that senior officers in the Division should be aware of the existence and contents of the section on strategic plans pertaining to primary schools, in order to develop their tactical and operational plans. Those plans should also be documented, she suggested.

Further, that the Ministry, “as part of its current strategic planning process, should ensure that plans are in place to address the security in primary schools in a holistic manner, and it should involve all major stakeholders including students.” Additionally, that “school principals should be informed of the strategic and operational plans developed by the ministry, and all security guards should be informed in writing of their duties as outlined in their contract brief.”  Principals must also be “properly informed about the existence and purpose of the monthly statements of performance of security guards and, they in turn (principals) should complete and submit the monthly statement of performance of security guards,” so that information could be provided on whether the programme was achieving its objectives. The Auditor also said that the Ministry should “take steps to ensure that contracted firms follow the specific services as listed in the contract brief with respect to training of their personnel, and to ensure that all security guards are exposed to training, specific to the school environment.” She suggested too that the Educational Facilities Management Unit should document “its systems for effecting repairs in order to provide for greater efficiency in the implementation of repairs.”