Education Ministry issues guidelines for social media use for school purposes
The Education Ministry issued a fresh set of guidelines for using social media applications for school education and communication purposes. The Ministry issued a circular on Friday, November 8, giving seven guidelines to teachers and other relevant parties involved in student education. The guidelines were issued as the Education Ministry received information about the negative impacts of using social media apps for educational activities. Schools used social media apps such as WhatsApp, Viber and Telegram to provide online education for students during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Schools continued to use social media apps even for extracurricular activities, communication between parents and teachers, as well as for exchange of study notes. According to the new guidelines, the administrative officials of schools such as the deputy principal/vice principal and section heads should become the Admin of the social media group app. If social media apps are used for educational activities, teachers should use special systems to ensure that social media apps are used in a manner which would not inconvenience students who lack the equipment to take part in online education.
The apps should only be used to give primary school students parents reminders. Parents of primary students could be informed and given reminders about items required to be brought to school for lessons; this should be done by giving ample time for parents. The circular also directed teachers to give exercises, and homework only within the school classroom premises, and parents and family members should not be inconvenienced by the use of social media. Social media applications are also required to be used in a manner where students’ privacy is protected, and should not have messages, videos, photos and voice records which lead to students’ mental stress. The ministry would take strict disciplinary action against these. Administrators of social media groups should bear responsibility for the damage to the good name of the school and the communities due to irregularities in educational groups between teachers and parent groups. If issues arise, legal action would be taken according to the prevailing law and Information Technology Act. (KW)
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