What can a teacher post, share on social media? Govt issues directives

The Directorate of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education today (October 23, 2022) issued a directive for teachers and staff of educational bodies on use of social media cautiously, especially in case of choosing content to share and accepting friend requests.

The directive was issued through an urgent notification undersigned by Nehal Ahmed, director general of the directorate.

The teachers and staff of educational institutions were directed to maintain caution in managing their content and friends in social media platforms and refrain from sharing or referring to unnecessary content, and decline irrelevant tag requests, according to the notification.

Steps will be taken against concerned staff member if s/he is found to have misused their social media accounts and/or shared or endorsed undesirable content, it said.

The notification also said, some teachers and staffers of educational institutions under the DSHE have been found to be sharing or endorsing contents or making remarks on their Facebook profiles and in different groups in the social media platform against their coworkers, head of the institution, concerned authorities, and the decisions taken by concerned authorities, thereby tarnishing the images of the directorate, secondary and higher secondary education division, and the education ministry.

Such activities are in violation of the Government Employees' Code of Conduct 1979, Government Employees' (Discipline and Appeal) Rules 2018, Public Service Act 2018, and Digital Security Act 2018, among a myriad of other laws concerned, according to the notification.

Also, all teachers and staffers of secondary level government-run and non-government education institutions, who are serving as admins of different groups in social media, were directed to publish content while adhering to the government's rules and regulations in this regard. Heads of the educational bodies have been directed to monitor the activities of such groups regularly.

All teachers, staffers have been also directed to adhere to a number of rules as per the Cabinet Division's Directives for Use of Social Media at Government Institutions 2019 in this regard. Those are:

• Refraining from publishing or sharing any content (post, images, audio or video) that may tarnish the image of the government or the state.
• Refraining from sharing any content that violates the notion of national unity and spirit.
• Refraining from sharing or publishing any content that is hurting religious sentiments of any community or is against the secular identity of the nation.
• Refraining from sharing or publishing content that may tarnish image of individuals, institutions, or any professional of national importance.
• Refraining from publishing contents that may refer to gender discrimination or any controversial issue; that may incite discontent of unrest among the public; that may be are baseless, untrue, and indecent.
• Refraining from sharing or publishing content that may tarnish image of any other nation, or of persons of national importance in any other country.