13 June: The Rajasthan Teachers Union has expressed its displeasure on the remarks of the Directorate of Secondary Education, Bikaner. The Director had mentioned that there should be a curb on the publication of negative news on schools being run under the administration of the Directorate of Secondary Education, Bikaner, Rajasthan.

Rajasthan Panchayati Raj and Secondary Teachers' Union has strongly opposed the decision of Director Secondary Education Bikaner to curb the publication of negative news in newspapers. The members of the union said that instead of focusing and taking cognizance of news in media, the Directorate should work towards improving the educational structure and optimise the use of resources to improve the quality of education in the schools.

Sher Singh Chauhan, State President of the Union said that there are not enough teachers in schools, as per guidelines of the RTE or the New Education Policy. He added that there is proper furniture in schools, where the children can sit and study or indulge in extra curricular learning. There is a lack of proper classrooms, adequate teaching infrastructure, drinking water facilities and even adequate or clean toilets. He said that in the absence of the basic infra and the unwillingness of the Directorate to take steps to improve, there is bound to be negative news in the media. He added that the Education Department should focus on improving the system and infrastructure and not worry about taking action to ban news from being published in newspapers.

The State General Secretary of the Union, Rajesh Sharma also expressed strong objection to the order of the Directorate of Secondary Education. He supported his objection with certain facts and deficiencies in the system. He informed that since 2015, posts of teachers have not been created in the schools of higher secondary education under the proposed staffing pattern. The posts of Senior Teacher, Lecturer, Vice Principal, Principal, DEO have not been filled for four sessions in succession. The entire structure of the education department is in shambles. The department has not been able to accommodate 20 thousand surplus teachers for a year. In such a situation, instead of taking cognizance of the negative news in newspapers, it would have been better if the Directorate respected the positive criticism in a democratic ecosystem and focused on improving the systems.