SHILLONG, June 28: The state government on Wednesday made it crystal clear that the teachers’ attendance monitoring system has to be implemented in Meghalaya since it is a part of a larger project of the central government that aims to tackle issues and problems concerning schools and teachers.
Seeking to downplay the controversy arising out of the decision of the East Jaintia Hills district administration to implement the Ubiattendance App to monitor teachers’ attendance and the resentment expressed by the teachers against mandatory implementation of the app owned by a private entity, Education Minister Rakkam A. Sangma on Wednesday said, “Ubiattendance App is a pilot project or experimental project that has been launched by the DC of East Jaintia Hills. Of course it is not from our department but the concept is similar to the project initiated by the central government.”
Sangma said the Centre will soon announce a project to monitor the attendance of the teachers, performance of the students, the difficulties and challenges in schools and other issues related to the education sector which will be tracked through the dashboard by officials sitting in Shillong or Tura.
He said after the programme is implemented, the state government would be able to grasp the real issue in schools across the nook and corner of the state. “The accessibility will be better once we implement the programme,” the minister said.
Talking about the opposition to the Ubiattendance App by some teachers in East Jaintia Hills, Sangma said, “I don’t expect such opposition.”
“We have to implement the central government programme and I expect cooperation from the teachers. This programme is not just about recording the attendance of the teachers. The attendance is just a part of the component and not the core objective of the programme,” Sangma added.
