BHOPAL: In an outlandish development, the Madhya Pradesh school education department has issued notices even to dead teachers in Mauganj district, seeking an explanation for not marking their daily attendance through the e-attendance system.
As part of efforts to ensure proper attendance of teachers through the e-attendance system at schools, the department recently issued notices to reportedly over 1,500 teachers in Rewa and Mauganj districts for not marking their e-attendance.
Surprisingly, those who were issued notices included three teachers in Mauganj who had already died, Devta Deen Kol, who died in April 2023; Ramgarib Dipaknkar, who breathed his last on 13 February 2025; and Chotelal Saket, who passed away in May 2025.
In the notices issued to the deceased teachers, the department sought their explanation for zero attendance, despite October 2025 having 17 working days. The teachers were given three days to file their replies, with the department cautioning that unsatisfactory responses could also lead to pay cuts.
Blaming the principals of the concerned schools in Mauganj district for the lapse, Rewa district education officer Ram Raj Mishra said, “The letters were issued based on the data of teachers secured from the special portal containing the details of teachers. The lapse happened as the data on the concerned portal wasn’t updated by the concerned schools’ principals through the block education officers (BEOs). Such cases are very few and the process has been initiated for updating the records on the concerned portal.”
Importantly, the department has intensified monitoring under the newly implemented e-attendance system by sending stern cautions to teachers who are not regular at schools. Defaulter teachers are being given three days to explain why they were not marking their attendance on the mobile app.
While the school education department has moved ahead with sternly implementing e-attendance to ensure accountability and improve the quality of education in schools, administrators appear to have overlooked the need to update teachers’ records digitally before issuing notices to alleged defaulters.