Amid growing teacher protests, Uttar Pradesh government suspends implementation of digital attendance system for two months | Education

Following widespread protests by government school teachers across the state, the Uttar Pradesh government has decided to suspend the implementation of the digital attendance system for two months. An expert committee will be formed to look into the problems faced by teachers during these two months, Director of Primary Education MK Shanmuga Sundaram said on Tuesday.

Hundreds of thousands of teachers and Shiksha Mitras in government schools have been fighting tooth and nail since July 8, the first day of implementation. On the first day (July 8), only 2 percent of the 609,000 teachers recorded their attendance digitally. And on the third day (July 10), even fewer teachers were present. The protest grew louder and teachers took to the streets across the state.

“But now it has been postponed for two months and the teachers’ concerns are being examined,” the school principal said by phone.

This is how the drama unfolded. The president of the Primary Teachers’ Association, Dinesh Chandrs Sharma, and other leading teachers met with the chief secretary Manoj Kumar Singh.

“The teachers’ side was presented in the meeting with the chief secretary. After hearing the side, the chief secretary decided to postpone the digital presence and form a committee to look into the issues raised by the teachers,” Sharma claimed in a social media post in X, sharing photos of his meeting with CS.

On July 12, the government relaxed its stance and announced that teachers can use the Digitize Register app throughout school hours. Until the process of recording teacher attendance is fully established, the Digitize Register app will be available anytime during the school day, said Kanchan Verma, director general of school education.

On July 12, the Department of Basic Education lifted the 8:30 am restriction on uploading attendance records, a day after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath intervened to resolve the impasse between government school teachers and the Department of Basic Education over digitisation of attendance records.

Teachers were allowed to use the Digitize Register app throughout the school day. Until the process of recording teacher attendance is fully established, the Digitize Register app will be available throughout the school day, said Kanchan Verma, Director General of School Education.

The next day, district level field officers visited different schools between 7:30 am and 10:30 am to assist the teachers and encourage them to use the Prerna app to upload relevant information regarding midday meal, student attendance etc. without putting teachers under pressure of attendance. It was found that the app needs to be updated.

DO NOT GO AGAINST THE SYSTEM, TAKE OUR DEMANDS INTO ACCOUNT’

The teachers stated that they were not against the online attendance system, but demanded that some of their demands be met.

“We are not against online attendance reminder. But we have other demands that need to be met before we can introduce online attendance system,” said Vipin Bihari, a senior teacher.

“There is no provision for paid leave (EL) or special leave (CL) for teachers. So teachers must be granted 30 days of EL and 14 days of half special leave. The government can abolish the June holiday,” said a teacher.

Vipin Kumar Bihari, a senior teacher, said that the public is under the misconception that “teachers are against online classes”. He said that no teacher in Uttar Pradesh is against online classes. Teachers just want an infrastructure to be developed before online classes where legitimate practical problems are solved.

Opposition leaders as well as BJP MPs and MLCs wrote a letter to the Prime Minister urging him to reverse his decision on digital participation.