Will Psychometric test be enough to ensure safety of students?

5 Reasons why we believe that the C.B.S.E board is wrong to want psychometric testing.

After the cold blooded murder of 7-year-old Pradyuman in Ryan International School in Gurgaon, the CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) has ordered psychometric tests for all the staff employed by schools affiliated to the board. The decision has been taken to ensure safety of students.

The CBSE has ordered the psychometric tests to be conducted on all staff under the CBSE affiliated schools and has ordered CCTV cameras to be installed in all school premsises stating that the safety of students is the responsibility of school authorities. The response from the CBSE came after the Supreme Court inquiry on the murder of Pradyuman.

Psychometric tests are usually conducted on potential employees to gauge if the person is syitable for a particular role.

According to a Times of India report, Deputy Secretary of CBSE Jaipraksh Chaturvedi has asked schools to promote better understanding among students and teachers.

The report also quoted the CBSE stating, "Schools must get psychometric evaluation done for all the staff employed. Such verification and evaluation for non-teaching staff - such as bus drivers, conductors, peons and other support staff - may be done very carefully and in a detailed manner."

However, Poorvi MK, senior behaiour analyst of Tutored and Trained has a different thought on the issue.

Here's what her research says:

5 Reasons why we believe that the C.B.S.E board is wrong to want psychometric testing.

1. Psychometric tests are used for recruitment agencies to screen out applicants who may not be a good fit for the company in terms of their personality match. They cannot, nor are the designed to test the motivations for a person to abuse a child.

2. Since they are not designed to be used for this purposes, there is no reliable way of saying that they will actually be able to screen out people, and if the school does not invest in better safety systems and rely's on the test, it could end up putting children more at risk as the school would feel it can get complacent now that the tests have been done and nobody has been found.

3. We have interviewed as well as compiled a list of interviews from impartial psychologists who are not affiliated with any schools who have spoken against psychometric testing for these purposes as they are not reliable or valid for these purposes.

4. Psychometric tests are extremely expensive, they could cost upwards of 1.5L for an institution and for a country who's average school profit is Rs.10000, that could cost multiple institutes to shut down.

5. There is no psychometric test created that can alone detect personality defects or detect tendency towards abusing a child by itself. It must be used in combination with various different tools, in a clinical setting, coupled with a professional psychologists assessment on the persons history. Therefore, the tests that the C.B.S.E has issued a circular to perform would not be effective while placing a massive financial strain on schools and colleges across the country.

Oneindia news also spoke to expert Rukmini Iyer, who said, "There is nothing wrong with the test but only psychometric test cannot be the only deciding factor to see if the employee is safe to be employed in schools. However, this tests to a great extent help in undertanding the potential emplyees. But there has to be a structure in place, else this could very well turn into a money minting practise for many organisations."

Pradyuman of Ryan International was killed by a school bus conductor - who had also tried to sexually assault Pradyuman. The case also brought out the several security lapses on the end of the school authorities.

OneIndia News