BENGALURU: The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has directed all state governments to implement biometric attendance in government and aided schools.
At a meeting held recently, the MHRD pointed out how the quality of education has been affected in government schools due to the increasing absenteeism of teachers.
According to Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), absenteeism on a given day ranged between 18 and 20 per cent in the state.
To end this menace, the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) has taken this new initiative of installing biometric systems. It is gearing up to implement the project on a pilot basis in four districts in the state, though it is yet to choose the districts.
The biometric system will also be used to keep track of students’ attendance in these four districts.
Once the project is implemented, both teachers and students will have to mark their attendance through the biometric system.
Currently, there are 2,18,198 teachers in 49,114 government schools and 45,435 teachers in 6,355 aided schools in the state.
According to a survey by The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in 2014, absenteeism of teachers was 15 and 17 per cent in Maharashtra and Gujarat respectively.
The highest rate of 42 per cent was recorded in Jharkhand followed by Bihar with 38 per cent.