Biometric attendance to be introduced for teachers in Hyderabad govt schools

Hyderabad: Government schools in the districts of Hyderabad, Rangareddy, Nizamabad, Medchal, and Malkajgiri will introduce biometric-based attendance, according to orders issued by the school education department.

As per the recent orders, “The district education officers of Nizamabad, Hyderabad, Rangareddy, Medchal, and Malkajgiri districts are informed that with the instructions from the government, it has been decided to implement Aadhar biometric attendance system to the teaching and non-teaching staff of the government and local body schools of above districts for proper monitoring of the attendance of staff and for effective implementation of the activities.”

In this regard, the staff would be given instructions to mark the attendance twice in these devices, ie morning and evening during the school hours. The school education department has also removed teachers who have been absent for long without any authorisation. The department's step is being seen as a move to control such absentees.

Earlier, biometric attendance was introduced in 12 out of 33 districts as a pilot project, however, it was limited only to the teaching and non-teaching staff. Though the orders and guidelines were to implement the system for all students, it could not be done so due to lack of funds, said sources. This time, the department itself has limited its orders only to the teaching and non-teaching staff and has not included the students in its guidelines, despite the drop-out rate of children in schools.

In this regard, the DEOs were also informed to ensure that all details of the school staff are entered on the official website of the school education department to integrate the data with the device to mark the attendance. And for all these things to work, it was also asked to ensure that there is functional electricity in these schools.