HYDERABAD: The facial recognition system introduced by the Telangana School Education department to record student attendance in government schools appears to be a failed initiative, according to several teachers. They allege the system is riddled with technical issues and has become time-consuming, often consuming nearly half of the first period each day. Teachers are now demanding the installation of biometric systems instead.
Introduced two years ago with the aim of easing the attendance process for both students and teachers, the system initially worked well. Teachers were trained to use the app, but over the last academic year and the ongoing, the application has faced frequent technical glitches. These include app crashes, long loading times, and delayed uploads leading to significant academic time loss.
“Every day, it takes around 20 to 25 minutes just to record and upload attendance. This is putting pressure on academics. What was meant to be an easier method has become unnecessarily complicated,” said Ahmed Khan, in-charge headmaster of government high school, Chaderghat.
Speaking to TNIE, M Ravinder, in-charge headmaster of government high school, Nallakunta, said, “We are tired of complaining to the concerned officials, but no concrete steps have been taken. Rather than using an app-based system, the department should install centralised devices near school gates to capture attendance. These would avoid the network and software issues we are currently facing.”
Another government school teacher, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, “The old method of using attendance registers is far more reliable. The facial recognition system is flawed. For example, last week while recording attendance for Class 6, the app uploaded pictures of absent students. It also fails to recognise students properly and doesn’t work consistently across different phone brands and versions.”
Teachers are now urging the education department to either fix the system comprehensively or consider replacing it with a more reliable biometric solution to avoid further disruption to academic schedule.