Centre mulls novel steps to check absenteeism in schools

SHILLONG, April 5: To tackle the chronic problem of absenteeism among teachers and students in schools and to ease the gargantuan task of keeping a tab on the performance of institutions, the union government is planning to come up with an App which would be monitored centrally.
Disclosing this here on Wednesday, Director of School Education RM Kurbah said that the versatile App will require both students and teachers to log in for recording their attendance on a daily basis.
She said under the National Education Policy, the governments across the country will enter daily data inputs of attendance, academic activities among others.
Addressing the annual function of Rilbong PN Chaudhuri higher secondary school, Kurbah informed that the three-way App would also enable parents to share their views on the progress of the children.
Another novel step being introduced nationally is to have a photo of class teachers put up in class rooms. The idea is to check proxy teaching, a practice quite rampant in the rural areas across board.
Kurbah further said the department has embarked on a project to convert all government schools in the state into Smart Schools. Computers, digital teaching facilities with audio-visual support, are going to be set up in the select schools to begin with.
Speaking on the occasion, former Education Minister Manas Chaudhuri underlined the need for having value-based school education. He urged the teachers to look beyond the prescribed curricula and help students become good citizens.
On this occasion, an inter-school debate was conducted. The motion “After 75 years of Independence, empowerment of women has remained a cliche” was carried by the house.
Vice Principal of St Edmund’s College Monotosh Chakravorty was the speaker.
Cultural show by teachers and students was the other highlight.
The prize winners out of a total number of 12 schools that participated in the debate competition were Anumeha Sehgal of Army Public School, Shillong (1st position), Bhavya Garg of Army Public School, Shillong, (2nd position), Riya Mandal of Laitumkhrah Bengalee Girls’ HS School (Best Speaker) and Snahish Deb of Rilbong PN Chaudhuri HS School (Most Humorous Speaker).