BHUBANESWAR: With the beginning of the new academic session of 2024-25, the Higher Education department on Tuesday directed all the teaching and non-teaching staff of higher education institutes to adhere to the seven-hour work rule.
In a directive, the department has asked the principals of all government, aided and unaided colleges to ensure teaching and non-teaching staff of the institutions are present on the campus from 10 am to 5 pm every working day and submit their biometric attendance.
It further asked the authorities concerned to open the institutions’ gates before 10 am for the convenience of students.
In 2019, the department had extended the duty hours of teachers in government colleges from five hours to seven hours. However, last year during an opinion-seeking exercise conducted by the department in higher education institutions, students had alleged that faculty members of several institutions are not spending seven hours on campuses for academic work.
Following this, the department decided that every month its performance tracking cell will collect reports from colleges and universities on whether all the faculty members have clocked the seven-hour attendance or not.