Several thousands of teacher from Uttar Pradesh's primary and upper primary schools are protesting against the state government -- Basic Education Department -- decision to implement a digital attendance marking system.
Since taking to X to voice their concerns, the hashtag #boycottonlineattendance has been trending on the microblogging site. The hashtag now carries over half a million posts under it.
THE ONLINE ATTENDANCE SYSTEM
According to the digital attendance system introduced by the state government, teachers are mandatorily required to mark their attendance, including their location, 15 minutes prior to the start timing of their regular classes.
The rules requires teachers to reach the schools by 7:30 and mark their attendance between 7:45 am and 8 am before their classes begin.
WHAT ARE THE TEACHER'S CONCERNS?
The teachers' main concern, as per the posts on X, is availability of proper network connectivity. Citing that many of them live in remote areas, where the connectivity is not as good to be able to mark the attendance.
"Nobody sees our demands and our helplessness. We are burdened with new rules every day," one of the posts read.
Many said that especially during rainy seasons, with waterlogged roads and campuses, how are teachers supposed to mark digital attendance on time.
They are afraid that if they reach the school late in such times and miss the time for marking the attendance, they would be marked as absent, which ultimately would result in leave deduction.
HOW DID BASIC EDUCATION DEPARTMENT REACT?
Reacting to the teachers' concerns, the Basic Education Department said that it is aware of their problems, pacifying them by saying that they can mark their attendance after thirty minutes.
"Orders have been given for digital signatures of council schools. But now there is an opportunity to mark attendance 30 minutes after the scheduled time. Instructions have been given to Basic Education Officers and Block Education Officers," it said in a post on X.
