New Delhi: On August 17, the Basic Education Officer (BSA) of Balrampur in Uttar Pradesh issued an order instructing all government primary and upper primary schools in the district to prohibit the entry of “outsiders,” including YouTubers or any individuals associated with social media, inside school campuses.The BSA specified that individuals from outside must not be permitted to enter schools for photography or videography without prior permission from a competent authority. The ban was enforced with immediate effect.In his directive, BSA Balrampur Vikas Chandra Srivastava argued that the restriction was necessary to ensure the smooth conduct of teaching-learning activities and to safeguard the interests and safety of students. The BSA is a government official tasked with managing primary and upper primary schools administered by the state’s Basic Education Council.“It is often seen that some outsiders and YouTubers enter the council schools of Balrampur district without authorisation, take photos and videos of the school and staff and share them on social media. Consequently, the teaching-learning process gets affected, the dignity of the teaching post is hurt and the image of the department is tarnished,” Srivastava stated.Speaking to The Wire, Srivastava clarified that his order did not constitute a blanket restriction on outsiders or media, but was intended to regulate entry so that learning remained undisturbed. He said the move was designed to deter social media users and independent YouTubers from barging into campuses to gather footage and create content purely for ‘views’.“Just recently, two individuals came to us to shoot videos and admitted they were not getting enough traction, stating they wanted to boost their views to seven lakh. These people enter solely to increase their viewership rather than to suggest constructive improvements. Schools will be ruined in this mad scramble for views,” Srivastava said.He added that these YouTubers routinely interrupt ongoing classes to shoot videos, prompting several teachers to submit complaints to the department. “They have no objective other than increasing views because they receive monetary payouts from social media platforms such as Facebook,” Srivastava noted.He further clarified that the state government and local administration have already appointed dedicated district- and block-level officers to inspect and monitor council-run schools on a routine basis.The ban on ‘outsiders’, YouTubers and social usersBalrampur is not an isolated case. Over the past three weeks, at least five districts across Uttar Pradesh have issued identical directives banning outsiders, particularly YouTubers and social media users, from entering council-run schools.This administrative decision comes at a time when school students across the state have initiated widespread protests and demonstrations to demand better infrastructure and highlight systemic shortcomings.The wave of agitation began with a protest by students at the semi-government-aided Sarvodaya Inter College in Fatehpur. On July 28, just days after a youth-led protest organised by the Cockroach Janata Party at Jantar Mantar in Delhi concluded successfully, around 1,500 students of Sarvodaya Inter College staged a four-hour sit-in outside their school gates.They demanded clean drinking water, safe electrical wiring, functional ceiling fans, leak-proof roofs, proper mid-day meals and adequate desks and chairs. Rattled by the demonstration, senior administrative officials rushed to the site and, within hours, conceded to the students by issuing a written assurance agreeing to nearly all their demands.Two of the recent orders, issued by Vikas Chandra Srivastava, BSA, Balrampur and Anup Kumar Tiwari, BSA, Basti. The orders say unauthorised outsiders, specifically YouTubers and social-media-associated individuals, must not be allowed inside school premises to photograph or film without permission.Since that event, whose visuals were widely circulated on social media, students have staged similar demonstrations in Lucknow, Azamgarh, Kannauj, Hamirpur, Moradabad and Unnao. On August 19, students of the state-run Jai Prakash Narayan Sarvodaya Vidyalaya in Unnao, adjoining the state capital Lucknow, blocked the Mohan-Ajgain crossing to protest against acute teacher shortages and substandard food.The blockade ended only after officials assured them that their grievances would be resolved. On August 18, students in Moradabad in west UP took to the streets demanding the relocation of a liquor shop operating near their school premises.On Monday, approximately 200 female students from the Jai Prakash Narayan Sarvodaya Vidyalaya in Lucknow blocked an arterial road to protest against teacher vacancies, following a similar street demonstration staged days earlier by male students from the same school group.Last week, students at the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya in Kannauj locked themselves inside their hostel rooms and went on a hunger strike over the alleged serving of poor-quality meals. The strike concluded after the District Magistrate met the students personally and pledged swift government intervention.Also read: The Gen Z & Gen Alpha Mandate: India’s Youth Uprising Outruns Traditional StatecraftFollowing these events, officials in several districts are personally inspecting state-run schools to evaluate infrastructural facilities and learning conditions.Earlier this month, schoolchildren and their parents in Hamirpur marched nearly five kilometers to the district administration office to protest against heavily waterlogged, unpaved roads leading from Chandupur village to their school. The Allahabad high court on August 14 took suo motu cognisance of a news report detailing the march and issued formal notices to the local administration.The high court observed that providing proper road access to students attending school was a state responsibility, rejecting the administration’s argument that road construction was stalled due to the absence of a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Forest Department.Videos expose reality of schoolingSeveral videos exposing infrastructural lapses in state schools have also gone viral on social media. Earlier in August, officials in Sitapur lodged an FIR, suspended a school headmistress, and terminated the contract of a cook after a video showing watery vegetable curry being served to primary school students under the mid-day meal scheme circulated widely online.Similarly, in Ballia, an officiating principal was suspended and a contractual instructor’s services were terminated after a video surfaced showing students being served rotis and cooked vegetables directly onto their hands instead of proper plates. A subsequent official inquiry revealed that a contractual worker had recorded the video back in April with the alleged intention of blackmailing the officiating principal.The Wire contacted the BSA of Basti district, Anup Kumar Tiwari, who similarly banned YouTubers and outsiders from school campuses, to ask whether these widespread student protests influenced his decision.Tiwari maintained that his order was merely part of a “routine” administrative exercise aimed at ensuring schools function without disruptions and safety of students. In his directive dated August 13, Tiwari also ordered all acting principals to keep school gates locked during and after operating hours. He explained to The Wire that this measure was meant to prevent “anti-social elements” and stray animals, such as buffaloes, from trespassing, a frequent problem during the monsoon season in rural areas.When pressed specifically on the issue of YouTubers and vloggers filming on campus, Tiwari remarked that such activities were acceptable provided social media creators sought explicit permission from school authorities beforehand.“They should not disturb active classes. Professional ethics must be maintained. Currently, we observe that anyone carrying a smartphone enters a school, thrusts a mobile device into a child’s face and demands soundbites,” Tiwari said, adding that school staff do not turn away media personnel who follow established protocols.Asked whether the education department feared that YouTubers might expose structural deficiencies in schools, Tiwari asserted that authorities conduct regular, timely inspections and take decisive action against negligent staff. He noted that just two days prior, the headmaster of a primary school in Basti’s Bahadurpur block was suspended for mid-day meal irregularities and for consuming gutkha on school grounds.The Wire reached out to the BSAs of Agra, Azamgarh, and Ballia for comment, but they did not respond to calls.Omar Rashid is an independent journalist.