I want to draw attention of the higher authorities toward security issues of the educational institutions in Lahore. Untrained and unarmed security guards, pickets and sandbags are inadequate to stop terrorism. Ordinary citizens are the only ones effected by such security measures, as, I am sure that, the security at these institutions would be unable to stop terrorists – if such an unfortunate event happens.
Most private institutions in the city are at the risk of being targeted. But we can see that they are only making money in the name of security from parent of students studying there. They provide inadequate security to their students by hiring before mentioned security guardsfor their schools.A few schools in the city have assigned security duties to their employees, in order to save themselves some money and to avoid government scrutiny. This issue can only be resolved by hiring professional,well-equipped and/or retired army men as security guards. Government should provide police trainers and to thesesecurity guards. I have seen many guards not checkingpeople entering schools and colleges in Lahore. They are not active and schools’ administration have stationed them there just as a formality. Parents can also play their role in safeguarding their children and making them secure. They should try their level best to pick up their children from schools themselves, while the school management should also realise their responsibility.

The writer is a media graduate from Institute of Communication Studies, University of the Punjab and he can be reached at: [email protected]