"Why Not Equip The Offices In All Executive Committees With Cameras?"
- 22.07.2025, 13:35
Video surveillance in kindergartens is not at all about protecting children's rights.
The scandal in the kindergarten in Mahiliou, where a teacher and an assistant rubbed sand on the children's faces, continued. And it's not just that many adults, including parents of the affected children, sided with the staff, writes "Salidarnasts".
The prosecutor's office said that the perpetrators were punished for "uneducational methods of education" in a disciplinary order, and the question of opening a criminal case is also being considered. The police are also conducting their own proceedings.
Separately, the local authorities have assembled a commission with the participation of "district-level educators" - and it cannot be excluded that in this case it is the parents, who are expected to face all sorts of commissions and threats of SOP, who will "fly".
But there is another result. The head of the education department of the Oktyabrsky district administration of Mogilev Yury Volkov stated that the installation of video cameras in kindergartens is being seriously discussed.
- The video surveillance system simplifies life not only for children, parents, but also for teachers. I am only in favor of it. The only side we have is financial. And, as parents have already expressed to me, they are ready even in some institutions to take over this function, - said the official on the air of state TV.
- It is very likely that just the initiative will be implemented, under the sauce of arguments about greater safety of children and prevention of such cases. And one could even believe it, if not for the peculiarities of the current Belarusian reality.
The video surveillance system in educational institutions is not primarily for the benefit of parents (although the money is planned to be withdrawn from them, as it has already happened with turnstiles in all schools) and not even for children. If it were so - why would officials be so zealous in pushing the idea of taking away cell phones from schoolchildren, which video recordings include unsightly situations from school life?
But for the administration, video cameras, to which it has access, are very convenient. Including for putting pressure on the undesirable - children, parents, teachers. They can provoke, stage, record a conflict and justify any subsequent actions with these videos.
And in cases when it is necessary to really protect the rights of children, not their own interests, the cameras are "broken" or, what a pity, the recordings have already been deleted.
Belarusians have gone through this many times with the examples of law enforcement officers' breast cameras and systems in security institutions, where video surveillance allegedly malfunctioned in controversial moments, which could refute the words of law enforcement officers about "waving hands, swearing with the mat", etc. and confirm the position of the people accused by them.
But if someone is so desperate and wants more, even more video cameras, there is a counter proposal. Why not equip offices in all executive committees with them? At the expense of officials, of course.