Biometric attendance in govt schools from next year in Telangana State

Starting next academic year, students and teachers of all government and local body schools in Telangana will mark their attendance on a biometric fingerprint machine instead of the conventional manual system.

About 25,000 schools — including primary, upper primary and high schools — will get the biometric equipment. Already, the Aadhaar biometric attendance system was being used in 9,349 government-run schools in 12 districts across Telangana. Now, the Directorate of School Education decided to extend the system to all government-run schools and sent a proposal to the State government seeking budgetary support for installing the machines.

 

The department tied up with Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and Telangana State Technology Services (TSTS) for implementing the Aadhaar biometric attendance. One biometric machine was being provided for every 100 students, with managements being directed to record attendance of teaching and non-teaching staff twice a day — morning and evening — and for students, before serving the mid-day



meal.

“The attendance recorded on the biometric machines will be matched with the bills submitted by school managements to ascertain the number of students consuming the mid-day meal. As it is linked with Aadhaar, the managements cannot duplicate admissions,” an official said.

The machines and software were designed in such a way that biometric fingerprints captured are immediately verified with the biometric details available with UIDAI using Internet and is reflected in the dashboard of the School Education Department’s website. A software was being developed to transmit the captured details offline or when network is available in the schools located in remote areas.

“Most students and teachers in schools where the machines are already in use are giving their attendance on it. The department sent a proposal to the government seeking budget for implementing the system in all schools from the next academic year,” an official said, adding that there were some network issues in certain schools located in remote areas with these being sorted out.