According to local media reports, the ministry of education adopted a series of amendments to the “Rules of ethical behavior of educators” document on May 15. According to the changes, educators (as in all teachers and academics employed within the institutions under the Ministry of Education) must adhere to the principles of lawfulness, honest behavior, loyalty, cultural behavior, impartiality, and public trust.
The document, specifically addresses the educators behavior on the social media and while speaking with media platforms, calling on them to follow the rules set out by relevant institutions where they are employed when sharing content on these platforms. Specifically it calls on the educators to abstain from sharing audio and video content that would otherwise result in personal and institution’s reputational damage.
In the previous iteration of the document these warnings did not exist.
The amendments also warn educators to refrain from sharing content critical of state institutions and their directors. Commenting on the amendments the chief adviser of the Regional Education Department, Elshan Ammadov said, “such content [on corruption and poor conditions of educational establishments] spread by individual teachers and other employees of these institutions which has led to criticism in society and damaged the [public] image of [other] employees is wrong. Such content violates the principle of subordination. Instead, it would be approrpriate to share our best achievements in the field of education on social media platforms.”