Nuh: Teacher attendance rises post rollout of facial recognition systems

Teacher attendance in government schools in Haryana’s Nuh has improved from around 50% to 66% since facial recognition attendance devices were introduced six months ago, deputy commissioner Akhil Pilani said, a week after the state education department directed district officials to ensure their regular use

Teacher attendance in government schools in Haryana’s Nuh has improved from around 50% to 66% since facial recognition attendance devices were introduced six months ago, deputy commissioner Akhil Pilani said, a week after the state education department directed district officials to ensure their regular use.

Pilani said the district administration had been reviewing attendance data regularly and recorded a marked improvement in morning attendance since the devices were installed.

Last week, the Haryana directorate of elementary education issued directions to the district education officer and district elementary education officer, asking them to ensure compliance with the facial biometric attendance system across government schools.

Pilani said the district administration had been reviewing attendance data regularly and recorded a marked improvement in morning attendance since the devices were installed.

A total of 835 facial recognition devices have been deployed across 898 government schools, with some schools receiving multiple units depending on the number of teachers and students. The system has a proposed user base of around 250,000 people.

The devices maintain a digital record of attendance, with data synced to a portal monitored by the district administration. “A review happens every 15 days, and a month ago, letters were sent to block education officers of areas where schools were not following the regulations,” Pilani said.

The administration is also working with Central Electronics Limited (CEL), the government agency that supplied the devices, to automate teachers’ punch-out attendance after school hours. “We have noted some discrepancies in the punching-out numbers of teachers, so we are trying to introduce an automated system for recording departures,” Pilani said.

The attendance initiative has also been extended to government health facilities in the district, according to Pilani. Twenty-five devices have been installed across 24 facilities -- seven community health centres (CHCs) and 17 primary health centres (PHCs) -- to monitor attendance and punctuality.

Nuh is among the districts identified under NITI Aayog’s Aspirational Districts Programme, which seeks to improve development indicators across sectors such as education and healthcare.