Teachers slam order to promote Facebook pages of Edu Dept

Shivani Bhakoo

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, June 15

Teachers are up in the arms against an order of the Education Department asking them to gather likes, shares and comments for the Facebook pages of the department and schools.

Following the recent letter sent by the District Education Officer, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, in this regard, the same process is now being carried out in the district through online meetings organised by the District Education Office.

Expressing displeasure over the order, the teaching organisations have termed it as an ‘encroachment into fundamental rights’. Leaders of the Democratic Teachers Front namely Daljit Samrala, Gurpreet Singh, Rajinder Singh, 5,178 teacher union, 6,060 teacher union and other representatives from different unions slammed the department for issuing such orders.

Teachers have been directly and indirectly inspired to make Facebook IDs to collect more and more likes and shares for the department’s FB pages. In an online meeting held today, the Deputy District Education Officer, Ludhiana, issued an order to the school principals and teachers to create FB accounts in the name of parents or siblings of kids who are below the age limit of having an FB account. Teachers in various district and block-level online meetings have also been told to like, shares and comment on the Facebook pages of the department and the school.