The Gujarat government will launch facial-recognition attendance system for teachers on Teacher’s Day (5 September) to keep a eye on 2.5 lakh government teachers.
The system will be launched by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on September 5.
The online attendance system uses an app with geo-tagging to mark the teachers attendance. The education department guarantees that it is a “fool-proof system” and there is “no scope for manipulation”.
Vinod Rao, Principal Secretary for education has recorded a 10-minute long video appealing an audio message to circulated them among government teachers’ Whatsapp groups and asked there support for the new attendance system.
Emphasizing the positive side of registering attendance through facial recognition which were earlier opposed by teachers’ associations for being an invasion of their privacy the principal secretary in his message that, “Now no injustice can be done to you. No principal can show you (as) absent, no CRC (Cluster Resource Centre Coordinator) can say he will mark you absent despite your presence. All this will be stopped through facial recognition which has geo-tagging and geo fencing technology.”
All teachers were told to download a Microsoft app named Kaizala or Facebook’s Workplace for the facial-recognition attendance system.
The move is still facing some bitterness among the teachers and is not happily accepted till now from feedbacks again from the Block Resource Centre (BRCs) co-ordinators, Cluster Resource Centre (CRCs), District Education Officers (DEOs) and District Primary Education Officers (DPEOs).
Rao is hopeful that the teachers will come around. “Every time a new move is implemented, it is expected to face resentment,” Rao told in a press conference. “But when they (teachers) know it is for their benefit, it (the system) is certain to garner support”.
Why Teachers Opposes the video attendance system:
- Gujarat State Primary Teachers Association president Digvi-jaysinh Jadeja cites privacy concerns as well as lack of financial and infrastructural support from the government.
- There was no discussion with us. None of our government primary school teachers will download the app.
- The main concern is privacy. “Among the two lakh government primary teachers, 65 per cent are women. Now with their photos to be uploaded, anyone can misuse them,” Jadeja said. Principal Secretary Rao’s message addresses this, saying the mobile application is completely secure.
- Teachers also oppose the move saying not all of them use smartphones. They demand that either the state government provide at least one smartphone to each school or that a biometric attendance system be used instead.
How Gujarat Government Supported Facial-recognition attendance system :
- In response to the privacy of women teachers he said that ,“I assure you no misuse is possible even Microsoft or Facebook cannot view these pictures because this (the data) will be encrypted and stored securely in the state government’s science and technology department’s GIPL server”.
- He adds that the app is like any other and that there is “no big conspiracy against teachers” or any attempt to curtail their independence. “If anyone has any misunderstanding, please contact me directly,” the principal secretary states in the message.
- After the demand of Biometric system instead of face-recognition system he said that the education department says it would cost a lot to switch to biometric attendance. Rao’s video message says it would cost Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 for each school, amounting to crores of rupees for 40,000 schools.
All the admin work will done online
All administrative work will be shifted from manual to digital on September 5.
For instance, computation of salary, reimbursement of bills, service book updation, which at times even takes years to be processed and is done by the principals or head teachers, will now be faster and easier.
Rao said that,“The main aim is to free head teachers of unproductive working hours who will be now at par with teachers. From 18 periods per week the head teachers will now teach for 45 periods every week like all teachers”.