The Bharatiya Janata Party government in Rajasthan on Sunday restricted the entry of outsiders in state-run schools without permission after the Cockroach Janta Party political campaign announced that its team will visit government schools in several districts to assess their conditions.
This visits will be part of a nationwide drive of the Cockroach Janta Party to improve the condition of government schools. The campaign has been sharing videos of schools on social media recorded by its volunteers in several states.
“If there is a dilapidated school in your city or village too and the administration is not listening, then tag me,” the campaign’s co-convener Ashutosh Ranka said on social media on Sunday. “Cockroach Janta Party’s team will soon reach there.”
He added: “We will get the schools of our children fixed, come what may!”
Soon after, the Rajasthan government announced that no outsider, except government officials on duty, will be allowed to enter school campuses without permission from the principal.
Photography, videography, interviews, audio recording or live streaming of students, teachers or school activities will also not be permitted without approval of the principal, said the circular issued by Director of Secondary Education Lalit Kumar.
It further directed the school authorities to ensure that no photograph, video or personal information of a student is collected, published or disseminated without the consent of their parents or guardians.
The government order empowered school principals to deny entry to visitors and said that the police should be informed if anybody refuses to leave the premises, or attempts unauthorised photography or videography.
On August 5, hearing and speech-impaired students of a government school in Jaipur held a protest about poor infrastructure and a lack of basic facilities. The principal of Government Seth Anandilal Poddar Senior Secondary School was suspended subsequently.
After the government’s Sunday order, Ranka said that while the police may file a first information report against him and his team, “nothing can stop us from visiting the government schools in Rajasthan and getting them fixed”.
In another social media post, he said that even if the government arrests them, the campaign will not “stop inspecting the schools until all schools in Rajasthan are fixed”.
The Congress’ Rajasthan chief Govind Singh Dotasra said that “instead of improving the condition of government schools, the BJP government has sought a way to cover up its failures and hide the dilapidated state of the education system”.
“The question is, if everything is fine in the schools, then why the fear?” he said on social media. “Why is the government so restless at the emergence of pictures of dilapidated buildings, crumbling rooms, shortage of teachers, problems faced by children, and the failures of the government machinery?”
Written by Sneha. Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.
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