Education authorities in Uttar Pradesh have asked people to bar all outsiders from coming into the government primary & upper primary schools, including YouTubers. This step is taken to ensure that there is no disruption to teaching and learning activities, officials said.
The orders follow a series of Maulavi Abediya student protests against precarious condition of government schools. In Unnao, students reportedly held a sit-in to protest the inferior quality of food and drinking water in their Schools on Wednesday. Students have earlier staged a demonstration and also blocked road to get teachers in Lucknow for several hours.
Officer of Basic Education of Farrukhabad, Vishwanath Pratap Singh was one of the first officials to issue such an order in April. He confronted those who had infiltrated schools without permission, gone to rooms to take photographs of the children, tried to examine records and sought out information that could lead to the degradation of the reputation of the education department, he said.
The circular instructed the school authorities to request that “every person claiming to be a journalist” produce his/her identity card, issued by the district information officer, on whose identity he or she worked. While acceptable identification was used, officials were told to withhold photos of documents, as well as any school information or departmental records.
In education districts, similar mandates have since been issued in a number of districts.
Speaking on July 30, Agra Basic Education Officer Rakesh Singh gave instances of individuals, persons from YouTube and other people entering the government schools without permission and sharing the photographs and videos of the school and staff on social media. Such activities may interfere with teaching and learning, he said.
Also, Rakesh Singh stated that government and administration has appointed officials for school inspection and monitoring periodically and take remedial measures to improve arrangement following the rules.
Following the same procedure has been adopted in the districts of Azamgarh, Ballia, Basti, Ambedkarnagar and Ayodhya. The bans are at a time when protests are being heard at schools run by the government over dwindling teachers, low quality food, drinking water and low infrastructure facilities.