Jaipur: Govt school teachers are facing confusion over mobile phone usage policies following disciplinary actions on four teachers and the suspension of one teacher for classroom phone use in the state this month. Educators are demanding clear guidelines as they highlight the necessity of mobile applications mandated by the education department for official tasks.

Education minister Madan Dilawar has stated that teachers are required to submit their phones to the principal’s office and may access them only during free periods, raising concerns among teachers about the fairness of disciplinary action amid the department forcing them to use the device for educational duties.

Dilawar, while speaking to media in Jodhpur, said that the education department has said that teachers should not take their mobile phones to classrooms. “Many times, teachers exaggerate the situation and say that they must do so much work but that is not true. Most of the information about school enrollment, beneficiary schemes active in schools, result details are all available on Shala Darpan portal. Teachers say that officials ask for such details. To curb this, I have instructed officials that if they seek information from teachers that already exists on the portal, then action will be taken against them,” he said.The Shala Darpan portal acts as a database with details like student and staff information, academic records of students, activities and assignments given to students. Teachers claim that department officials seek such details from teachers which can be accessed from the portal itself.

The minister added that there are only a few tasks, like marking attendance, for which teachers must use mobiles. “For this, we have instructed that attendance can be marked during morning prayers. If there is an emergency, then the information can be given to the principal, who can pass it on to the teachers,” said Dilawar.

Teachers, on the other hand, said that for at least seven to eight tasks, they have to use mobile phones, which include marking attendance, reading exercises and updating details of food cooked as part of the mid-day meal, among other activities. “Teachers are asked not to use mobile phones in school but so many activities and updates have to be uploaded on the department portal through mobile applications. If the teacher updates these details after school hours, then we get notices that the update was not sent timely and if we are found using phones in class, then disciplinary action is initiated against the teacher,” said Narayan Singh Sisodiya, spokesperson of Rajasthan Panchayati Raj Evam Madhyamik Shikshak Sangh.

Vipin Prakash Sharma, state president of the Rajasthan Primary and Secondary Teachers’ Association, said the association wants a complete ban on the use of mobile phones to be implemented in schools so that teachers can just focus on academic work. “Proper guidelines should be issued by the state govt,” said Sharma.