Jadavpur Vidyapith implements biometric attendance to make teachers attend prayer

Kolkata: After the introduction of biometric attendance for teachers and non teaching staff at the school, Jadavpur Vidyapith (JV) has set an example by implementing biometric attendance to ensure that teachers also take part in the regular prayer before the classes kick off.

"We have found out that teachers often go directly to the classrooms and skip the prayer. We have taken this step to ensure that teachers too take part in the prayer along with the students," a senior official of the school said.

It may be mentioned that biometric attendance for teachers and non teaching staff have been implemented in a number of government schools across the state to keep a hawk eye on late attendance and irregularity among some teachers following allegations from students and also from their guardians.

JV has started biometric attendance two years back. The biometric infrastructure is in place at two locations, one at the entrance of the school and another adjacent to the headmaster's room.

According to headmaster Parimal Bhattacharjee, a teacher is scheduled to reach school at 11 am sharp. The prayer is held at 11.05 am. If a teacher comes after the prayer has started, he has to wait for the same to end and then only he can enter the school building.

The school also maintains a daily register where teachers have to put their attendance. "We preserve the daily biometric attendance and monitor the same after every month. We also tally the same with the attendance register if required," the official said adding that three days late attendance in a month is deemed as a casual leave on the part

of the teacher

"It has been decided that if it is found that a teacher skips prayers on a regular basis, we will first warn him and then take punitive measures," the official said.

The school has not decided yet whether they will introduce biometric for monitoring student attendance in the school.