Notices served on nine teachers of the Zilla Parishad High School of Atchampet mandal in Palnadu district for marking their attendance late by a few minutes on the face recognition app has raised the hackles of the teacher unions.
In the notice, District Education Officer M. Venkatappaiah said the teachers had violated the rule on October 22 (Saturday) by failing to mark their attendance before 9 a.m., and it amounted to dereliction of duty.
The teachers were asked to give an explanation within three days on why disciplinary action should not be taken against them.
Barring one of them who was late by 20 minutes, the remaining were late by about one to 5 minutes.
The teachers who received the notice were B. Srinivasa Rao, who marked his attendance at 9.03 a.m., Ch. Jhansi Lakshmi (9.05 a.m.), D. Hema Latha (9.02 a.m.), D. Babu Rao (9.01 a.m.), P. Kanaka Durgamma (9.20 a.m.), M. Raja Rao (9.01 a.m.), Noorjahan (9.02 a.m.), P. Sujatha (9.05 a.m.), and U. Raja Sekhar Rao (9.05 a.m.)
Leaders of the State committee of the A.P. United Teachers’ Federation (UTF) took exception to the show-cause notice issued to the teachers, and demanded that the department officials withdraw it immediately.
Federation president N. Venkateswarlu and general secretary K. S. S. Prasad, at a meeting on Sunday, said teachers were opposed to implementation of the face recognition app for attendance, replacing the biometric system.
They said Education Minister Botcha Satyanarayana and the department officials had assured them that no action would be taken against the teachers, that e-attendance would not be linked to the salaries, and that half day leave would be deducted if a teacher marked the attendance late three times.
They said the officials had gone back on their promise, and started issuing notices to teachers even if they were late by one minute.
State president of Andhra Pradesh Teachers’ Federation (APTF) Ch. Manjula, general secretary K. Bhanu Murthy and former general secretary P. Panduranga Varaprasad condemned the move, and accused the government of harassing the teaching fraternity.
Demanding immediate withdrawal of the notices, the APTF leaders said otherwise they would be forced to take the confrontation path.
