The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) has decided to use a mobile app to take the attendance of primary school teachers under the hill body.
Rajesh Chauhan, the deputy chairman of the GTA Sabha who is also in charge of the primary education department, stated that all primary school teachers had been asked to download the Notecam app.
“Starting from April, all teachers will have to click their pictures in school using the app every day as soon as school starts and just before it ends,” said Chauhan.
The photographs taken through the app will have to be submitted to the sub-inspector of schools of the respective circle. There are 13 education circles within the GTA.
Notecam is a mobile app designed to take photographs that contain details such as time, date, location, coordinates and other data.
The app can be downloaded for free on both Android and iOS platforms.
“These days everyone has an Android phone and there should be no issues in submitting photographs,” said Chauhan.
The GTA wanted to use a biometric system for teachers’ attendance.
“However, the system was not feasible for schools as the number of teachers in a school is often too few,” said a source.
There are 778 primary schools in the GTA’s jurisdiction with around 2,300 teachers.
The GTA, however, has introduced biometric attendance at its headquarters at Lal Kothi, the primary education department at Lewis Jubilee and Shiksha Bhavan
in Darjeeling.
“We will introduce biometric attendance in circle offices too,” said Chauhan.
Asked if low teacher attendance prompted the hill body to introduce the app-based attendance system, Chauhan had a different take. “Many teachers attend classes regularly but allegations are still made about poor attendance. This system will clear such doubts,” said Chauhan.
Even though the hill body plans to introduce the system in April, teachers are being informed about the nitty-gritty of the system in an ongoing workshop on teaching methodology in each education circle. Lecturers from primary teacher training institutes are resource persons.