Srinagar, May 15 (KNO) : The much hyped initiative of bio-metric attendance in government schools has fallen flat as the teachers and the heads of the institutions have done away with the practice, in violation of the government orders.
The government from time to time has issued several circulars and orders directing the heads of the institutions to mark their attendance as well as that of the staff through bio-metric system. But the orders are not implemented in letter and spirit on the ground.
“Very few schools have continued with the biometric attendance system of teachers while as all government high and higher secondary schools were ordered to do so by the department,” an official in the education department told KNO. Most of the schools have not procured the bio-metric machines till date speaking volumes about the poor implementations of the government orders.
Earlier, most of the schools had purchased battery backed bio-metric machines to maintain transparency in the teacher attendance but the use of these machines dwindled as the new academic session started in schools. “The schools were supposed to send weekly reports to the directorate but that was not followed due to which the system of bio-metric attendance got deflated in schools,” a teacher posted in Budgam told KNO.
The bio-metric attendance system was started after the imposition of governor rule in the state last year wherein it was stated that the system will be monitored by the directorate on weekly basis. “The monitoring system was effective till N N Vohra was in Chair,” an official told KNO. He said the announcement of winter vacation also was the reason for doing away with the new attendance system.
“After Vohra was removed as Governor, there was no monitoring on the bio-metric attendance and schools also started doing away with the practice,” the official said. The introduction of bio-metric attendance system in schools and offices of education department had brought transparency in the attendance system.Director School Education Kashmir (DSEK) Muhammad Younis Malik was not available for his comments.(KNO)