From Oct 1,PU students to mark presence online

The move is to put a check on undue pressure created on authorities by student organisations,syndicate and senate members demanding to condone lectures to students.

The DUI further said a close monitoring would be done for each department to ensure whether they have introduced it or not. “This time,the directions will not end with the circular,” he said.

It has been over an year since the proposal was mooted by the authorities in order to bring transparency in the attendance and put a check on dharnas and requests from the students for condoning of attendance. This was a regular feature prior to examinations,where students would sit on a dharna outside the vice-chancellor’s office protesting against denial of admit cards to students whose attendance was below 75 per cent.

The Panjab University Teachers Association (PUTA) has come out in full support of the move.

“Since there is no resistance from the teachers,there in no point in opposing the introduction of the system. Our only demand is that infrastructure should be provided to support its functioning. Computers with proper internet facilities should be made available,’ said PUTA president Akshaya Kumar.

The System

Once the enrollments are uploaded,teachers will be provided with log in and access password to record daily attendance. The attendance software is in the form of an excel sheet prepared in such a manner that the teachers are required to only mark absent while the unfilled boxes will automatically be filled as present. It is designed to save the teachers from putting in extra efforts. Initially,it was suggested that the teachers should have access to modify the data,which after deliberations was declined by the authorities.

Next,Hostels & Guest Houses

Demand is growing for online allotments of hostel rooms and university guest houses. The software is already in place with the computer department of the university. Dean Students’ Welfare A S Ahluwalia had recently assured that the online system for hostel allotments would be in place in the upcoming academic session. PUTA raised the demand for online allotment of guest houses.