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March 7, 2005
Orwell Comes to Nagpur: All Cameras, All the Time
Saturday's edition of the Times of India had a rather disturbing story about a school in Nagpur in which the principal has installed 180 webcams throughout the school to monitor students and teachers. The school, featured in the new documentary The Great Indian School Show, was wired by principal D. K. Bajaj, who felt the webcams would help enforce strict discipline.
Meanwhile, some parents and educators have begun to complain. "We do not need such Spartan discipline at school, especially in day school," said Uma Sharatchandra, another local principal. "They are just learning to become good human beings. They make mistakes, they learn from it."
School counselor Sadanand Ghaskadvi worries that parents won't understand the implications of the webcam practice. "In the last several decades I've seen several such attempts to enforce extreme discipline." Sanjyot Despande, another counselor, added, "It will come in the way of their personality development. It is especially wrong for teenage students, who will feel seriously offended by the cameras."
After viewing the documentary, a fourth grader was asked who the bad guy was in the film. "The villain is the one who wears all those gold rings and sits in his dark room, watching all the children on his TV, isn't it?" he said. "I don't ever want to go to his school."
Posted by acarvin at March 7, 2005 5:07 PM
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