Attendance bot to track students in Maharashtra govt schools

The model is formed on the lines of Vidya Samiksha Kendra (VSK) in Gujarat. According to the new system, teachers have been asked to download a specific mobile application to enter the attendance data of students.

According to Dange, it will be an easier process of keeping records. “This new centre will be like a one window system to keep a watch on overall as well as district, region-wise status of learning outcomes from schools and keeping track of various services provided to students by the government through schools,” he said.

Stating that online attendance is going to be just one of the components of this centre, Dange said that in future, various other details will have to be uploaded by teachers on this system. “This is an easy application, which is expected to ensure complete transparency. More importantly, this entire system will have a live dashboard where teachers, parents and education department officials will have access to attendance and academic records of students,” said Dange.

Schools, however, are not very impressed as they say they are already recording attendance in two different ways. Mahendra Ganpule, spokesperson of the Maharashtra School Principals Association, said, “There is a regular attendance register where teachers take manual attendance of students. Additionally, for classes 1 to 8 where mid-day meals are provided by the government, there is a different tech-based system where schools have to update attendance for the government to keep a track of the number of beneficiaries. Now this will be a third process.”