Amid widespread protest by school teachers and criticism from political quarters, the Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday announced that it was putting on hold the mandatory digital attendance of teachers in government run schools. The decision was made after a meeting between the chief secretary Manoj Kumar Singh and representatives of teachers’ bodies. A committee has been formed which will go into the modalities of digitalisation and submit its report in two months.
Since July 8, it was announced that the digital attendance system had been implemented, teachers had been against it. They had demanded that such a system be first implemented at all government levels. The government announced the formation of an expert committee which will consist of Education Department officials, representatives of teachers’ associations, and academicians to understand the problems of the teachers, take their input, and submit a report. The decision on teachers’ digital attendance will be taken on the basis of the committee’s report.
Principal secretary, basic education, M.K. Shanmuga Sundaram, director general, school education, Kanchan Verma, Uttar Pradesh Primary School Teachers’ Association president Dinesh Chandra Sharma, and other senior officials were present in the meeting.
Earlier, Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati on Tuesday targeted the U.P. government over its “hurried” implementation of digital attendance. “Digital attendance of teachers seems to be a new step of the government which has been imposed in a hurry without proper preparation. More important than this is the recruitment of correct and adequate number of teachers along with the development of basic facilities so that good quality education can be ensured,” Ms. Mayawati wrote on X (formerly on Twitter).
