Conterminously with the Supreme Court having struck down s. 66A of the Information and Technology Act, 2000 which allowed police countrywide to arrest individuals for posting any ‘offensive content’ on the internet, the Uttar Pradesh government’s department of secondary education has proscribed interaction between teachers and students on the internet, aka, the social media.

A notification issued on March 17 comprises a wide set of guidelines with the avowed purpose of making schools safe for students.

Among the directives included in the eight-page order are installation of GPS systems in school vans and buses, antecedents/verification of drivers, strict supervision of admission and exit points to regulate entry of strangers into school premises, curfew hours for boarding schools and appointment of ‘power angels’ (girl students trained as counsellors of peer students) from class III upwards. The guidelines are applicable to all 195,089 schools in UP, regardless of exam board affiliation.

While the notification has been broadly welcomed by teachers and parents, prohibition of teacher-pupil communication has drawn mixed reactions. In an explanatory statement in the notification, Jitendra Kumar, principal secretary of secondary education, says the interface between teachers and students on social media should be restricted or, if allowed, should have the sanction of a “competent authority”. The statement also urges school managements to monitor all communication between teachers and students over email and mobile phones, in the interest of upholding the traditional guru-shishya parampara (teacher-student relationship), warning of strict action for breaches of the notification.

According to an education ministry spokesperson, the notification has been inspired by the rising number of crimes originating in social media interaction, including two gruesome crimes in Lucknow in February. A 17-year-old girl student of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Gomtinagar, was reportedly raped and forced to undergo an abortion by her chemistry teacher who established a friendship with her on Facebook. On February 1, another 20-year-old girl was murdered by her boyfriend who saw pictures of her with another boy on WhatsApp.

But Juhie Singh, the newly-appointed chairperson of the state’s first Commission for the Protection of Children’s Rights, is doubtful whether the proscription of teacher-student communication will serve the intended purpose. “The directive is too broad.

Some other way has to be found to address problems perceived to arise from social media interaction,” she says.

Vijai Yadav, director of the K-12 CBSE-affiliated L’ecole du Monde School, Lucknow, also entertains doubts about efficacy of the notification. “Though we may be able to keep a check on students and teachers during school hours, how do we control what happens after school?” he queries.

However, a closer reading of this notification makes it plain that the entire onus of this politically correct notification has been devolved upon school/institution managements which neither have the training, competence nor capability to discharge this responsibility. Another instance of bureaucratic overkill destined to remain a dead letter.

Puja Awasthi (Lucknow)