Kota: The district education department in Jhalawar, Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje's home town and assembly constituency, has asked government teachers to check open defecation in their respective school areas by going out on visit at 5 am to generate awareness and also click photos of those found relieving themselves in open.
The order, however, has not gone down well with teachers' organisations which said such a job is inappropriate particularly for women teachers.
A senior official in the department said the order requires teachers to send a report and photographs through WhatsApp to senior officials everyday.
The order was issued on June 3 and will come into effective after schools' summer vacation ends on June 21.
Jhalawar district education officer (elementary) Laxman Kumar Malawat said the heads of government schools and their staff have been directed to visit their respective areas in morning at about 5 O'clock.
During the visit they would generate awareness amongst students and their parents against open defecation and click photographs of those found defecating in open, Malawat said.
The teachers must send the report and the photos to their senior officials on WhatsApp daily, he added.
The practice has been started at some schools in the district since February and will be taken up in rest of the government schools as it has yielded "positive results", the DEO said.
Other measures for checking open defecation include rewarding those students who have toilets at their homes, separate queue for students with toilets and those without at morning assembly prayer in schools, Malawat said.
Female government teachers are also covered under the order. Teachers' organisations have reacted sharply to the order.
"Is this now the only job left for teachers to do instead of teaching?" asked Jhalawar district Shikshak Sang (Rastriya) former president Ajay Jain.
Such additional job to teachers would adversely affect the quality of education and results, he said.
"The job is inappropriate, particularly for female teachers," said Jyoti Sharma, general secretary of district Shikshak Sang (Rastriya) and lecturer in biology at government senior secondary school.
"But, we are government servants and we must follow the government orders," she said.
