BENGALURU: Bangalore University will be closely monitoring the attendance of its staffers to ensure regularity and accountability. The varsity authorities have decided to install biometric attendance monitoring devices at Jnana Bharathi campus.
Observing that some of the varsity staffers were irregular at work and many keeping away during office hours without informing the higher-ups, the university officials have decided to make biometric attendance mandatory for both the teaching and non-teaching staffers. Vice-Chancellor of Bangalore University Prof K R Venugopal told The New Indian Express, "We need to monitor the attendance of each of our employees. Even I will follow the rules and mark my attendance in the biometric device."
Capturing attendance of university staff via bio-metric device was a direction given by the state higher education department two years ago. "The equipment is already in place. The only thing we need to do is to make the employees use them mandatorily," Venugopal said.
Teachers unhappy with move
"We are already maintaining movement registers at the departments and making bio-metric mandatory will not make any difference," said a senior faculty member. However, the V-C said, "We are not restricting them from using library or attending any seminar, or preparing for their research activities. We are just asking them to mark their entry and exit each time through which authorities can monitor whether the faculty members are in the classroom for the duration mandated for them as per University Grants Commission norms."