Saudi Gazette report

AL-KHOBAR — The education office in Al-Khobar requires its female employees to use social media applications such as WhatsApp and Twitter to carry out their daily tasks, especially for distributing circulars and instructions about training and social programs.

Sources at the office, while speaking to Al-Yaum newspaper, justified this step saying it served the purpose. The education department urged its employees to benefit from communication technology from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. It also urged the staff to stick to matters related to work and avoid exchanging personal messages.

The department’s WhatsApp group concentrates on activities, achievements and programs that aim at spreading the spirit of competition among staff members. It also urged them to rely on authentic sources when it comes to sending news and to clearly mention their names on information they pass. It also stressed the need to stay away from exchanging personal information and pictures through the official WhatsApp groups.

When it comes to Twitter, the education office will authenticate all accounts that belong to the Al-Khobar education office, departments and sections.

The education staff responsible for these official accounts will be identified and anything that is tweeted on these accounts will be their responsibility. All tweets related to work will be retweeted by these accounts. The office asked the staff to ignore all matters that are not related to work.

The official spokesman of education department in the Eastern Province, Saeed Al-Bahis, said the new procedure was part of improvements recommended by an international organization enlisted by the Al-Khobar education department. The idea is to underline the importance of communication between staff through social media and to utilize technology to best serve the needs of education.