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Chandigarh to crack down on dummy admissions at government schools
The Chandigarh education department has shifted daily attendance online to keep a check on the dummy admission students who stay absent for extended periods and take action against them
With the admissions for Class 11 commencing,, the UT education department plans to bring an end to the process of students joining government schools on dummy admissions. The department has shifted daily attendance online to keep a check on the students who stay absent for extended periods and take action against them.
The app was launched earlier in July, and attendance starting from August 1 will be shifted onto it. The app was also designed to ease the workload of teachers who will not have to send data periodically to the UT education department.
As per officials, dummy admissions are those who do not attend school on a daily basis, but still get attendance and are allowed to take the exams. Students preparing for competitive exams like the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) often opt for the same.
While there are no official figures, an estimated 10-20% of government school students take dummy admissions. A few private schools also offer the provision.
Speaking about the same, director, school education, Harsuhinder Pal Singh Brar said, “We have launched a new app in which the attendance of students has to be marked daily. The attendance is marked with a geotagging facility to ensure its authenticity. Every seat in a government school is subsidised by the government and those making use of it as a dummy school are wasting this money and depriving a needy candidate of this facility so we will crack down on it.”
Brar explained that earlier some teachers were found to give a whole week’s attendance in one go and get away with the same. “We will take strict action against teachers found indulging in this. Students who are found to remain absent won’t be allowed to appear in the board exams.” The department will also crack down on those found bunking classes and whenever a student is absent, an SMS message will be sent to his or her parents or guardian.
3,907 admission forms received
Till 6 pm on Tuesday 9,469 applications had been received on the online portal of the UT education department, while 12,546 students have registered to participate in the first counselling. The admission process will continue till August 9, while classes will start from August 23 onwards..
