As many as 10 state-run schools with a good track record of enrolments and infrastructure have been chosen to launch an Aadhaar-based biometric attendance system.

According to Mamta, the state project director of Jharkhand Education Project Council (JEPC), the middle schools in Ranchi district were chosen because all adhered to Right To Education norms strictly.

“We have selected the 10 schools as students’ enrolment is quite encouraging due to basic infrastructure and teachers,” she said.

Most important, all the students of schools have their Aadhaar cards, according to district superintendent of education Jayant Mishra.

The council has spoken to state HRD principal secretary K. Vidyasagar and IT secretary N. N. Sinha to finalise the process for the 10 schools .

“They are working on it and will give us details about expenditure soon. It will take a month to start the Aadhaar based attendance system,” she said.

The idea behind the move is to monitor attendance of both teachers and students and streamline the overall administration of the schools.

There are over 40,000 state-run middle schools (for students of class I-VIII) and the project director said they were in the process of making Aadhaar cards for the students.

“In the 10 selected schools, all students have Aadhaar cards and we are in the process of issuing cards to students of other state schools too,” she added.

IT secretary Sinha said they had received the letter from the council. “We will help launch the system. We will work together,” he said, adding they had already started procuring systems required for setting up the Aadhaar-based system.

Principal secretary in the state HRD department K. Vidyasagar explained that the entire cost of the pilot project would be borne by the council.

“The IT department will provide necessary technical support along with the hardware and software required to implement the project,” he added.

Earlier this month, chief secretary R.S. Sharma had directed the HRD department to implement Aadhaar-based biometric attendance systems in state-run schools, which would provide the HRD department with accurate data on attendance at review meetings.

HRD principal secretary K. Vidyasagar wrote to Sinha on November 13 seeking his department’s help in implementing the Aadhaar-based attendance system in 10 government schools of Ranchi district.