VietNamNet Bridge – While schools and parents applaud the idea of installing cameras in and outside schools to ensure security, students say this will be an interference in their private lives.
The Hanoi Education Training Department’s deputy director, Chu Xuan Dung, has signed a dispatch asking schools in the city to strengthen the management of students and ensure security in school.
The department said schools have been encouraged to install cameras with connections to the local police to prevent fire and explosions and to ensure traffic safety in schools, at school gates and adjacent areas.
A representative of Dai Cuong High School in Ung Hoa district said that cameras will be useful for schools.
“We have installed cameras recently and feel safer. It would be better if the cameras are connected with the police. School violence and wrongdoings will be mitigated,” he said.
“This will also help better manage students,” he added.
A leader of the Thach That High School also said he advocated the idea of installing cameras.
“We have installed cameras, but the system aims to prevent invaders. We still don’t have money to install cameras inside the school and in classrooms. However, we will have to think about this,” he said.
Parents have also raised their voice applauding the plan to install cameras.
Nguyen Thi Mai, a parent in Hoan Kiem district, said she finds it necessary to have cameras at school and would help pay for the installation.
“So many school violence cases have occurred recently. We are worried because the school environment is no longer safe. I think cameras will soon discover the ‘seeds’ of violence and crimes,” she said.
Meanwhile, the idea has been facing opposition from students. NTTH, a student at a high school in Thanh Oai district, said she hates to be monitored, even though by a machine.
“With the presence of cameras, we won’t be able to act and speak freely,” she said.
Meanwhile, a classmate of H said if the school installs cameras, it will interfere with citizens’ freedom.
“Imagine that you cannot speak out what you think and you have to behave the way the adults want you to do,” he said. “I don’t want such a restrained school life.”
“This is school, not military camp,” he said. “It is the police’s job to discover crimes. It is not our responsibility to let cameras follow us everywhere.”
Mai from Hoan Kiem district said she thinks cameras should be set in some places in school.
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