By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, July 11: Refusing to bow down to pressure tactic, East Jaintia Hills Deputy Commissioner Abhilash Baranwal has said there is no question of revoking the decision on using the Ubiattendance (UBI) app for recording teacher’s attendance in the district.
He told The Shillong Times on Tuesday that the UBI app was introduced following receipt of complaints from the public about teachers remaining absent from duties.
He said he had received a complaint that some teachers hired proxies who are barely educated.
“Many of the headmen and people have appreciated the steps taken by the district administration since they have started seeing teachers in the schools ever since the introduction of this app. The attendance of students in far-flung areas has improved because teachers have started going to school,” Baranwal said.
He said he is planning to introduce the UBI app to all government departments in the district, whether it is health and family welfare, animal husbandry and veterinary or District Transport Office and all offices which deal with the public and where there are regular complaints about the staff not seen in their seats whenever people visit these offices.
The teachers are not happy that their personal information has been shared with a private firm which owns the UBI app. But Baranwal said the same company is providing services to different PSUs whose data is far more sensitive. He said all employees of the BPCL are registered on this app.
“If you go through the privacy policy of this company, you will see they have categorically mentioned that they will use the data as per the instructions of the employer. We have categorically mentioned that they will not use the data for any other purpose. Secondly, we are storing the data in Amazon Web Services which is a certified service from Government of India,” Baranwal said.
He said adequate precautions have been taken against misuse of the data. He said the data, which has been shared, is only mobile phone numbers. He said his number has been also shared on the internet and is available on the website of the district.
The DC said he is not complaining because when he joined government service, he has to abide by the decision of the government.
Referring to the June 21 order, he said he had directed the officials of Education department in the district to ensure that the attendance of the teachers is officially marked on the UBI app.
“We will serve show cause notices to the concerned teachers and ask the Education department in the district to follow departmental rules regarding the absence of these teachers. I have given them enough time,” he added.
Meanwhile, the All Meghalaya Primary School Teachers’ Association (AMPSTA) has opposed the introduction of the attendance app in East Jaintia Hills.
APSTA general secretary, FC Shullai told The Shillong Times that the DC decided to introduce the attendance app after the latter had received complaints from several Rangbah Shnong or Waheh Shnong that many teachers always remain absent from duties.
Shullai said it is important that there are two types of schools in the state – one set of them will be fully managed by the government and the other by religious and linguistic minorities.
“We have to understand that the school managing committees are the sole authority to run these schools. But the order to implement the attendance app has come from a top level official and not from the Education department,” he said.
He alleged that there is a clear attempt to take away the powers of the school managing committees. There are government schools where the Rangbah Shnong is the president of school managing committee, he said.
Questioning how a bureaucrat can ignore or supersede the school managing committees, Shullai asked if the school managing committees received any complaint against the teachers.
He said the Education department should have sought a clarification from the school managing committees concerned if the teachers were not attending to their duties regularly.
Shullai claimed the DC has no authority to direct the teachers to use the app. He said such a directive has to come from the Education department.