Indore: Government schoolteachers move court against e-attendance

Unhappy about the district education officer’s directive to download ‘e-attendance’ application on their Android phones, schoolteachers have moved court, which has issued a notice to DEO.

Unhappy about the Indore district education officer’s directive to download web-based ‘e-attendance’ application, government school teachers have moved court on Monday, an advocate said.

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The district education officer’s (DEO) directive aimed to track the location of the teachers with the help of an android-enabled global positioning system (GPS), has miffed the teachers, who said the move be a recurring financial burden on them.

Advocate Umashankar Verma, who is representing the teachers, said that the court has issued the notice to DEO Kishore Shinde in this regard.

Verma said the teachers were unhappy over the fact that the application is only for android mobile, which requires an internet connection to run.

"What will happen to teachers who do not have android phone, or if there is no network available in the area where the teacher is posted?" he said.

In the order, the DEO had ask the school teachers to download the application on their mobile phones and asked the respective school principals to register the teacher's details including name, post, posting, mobile number.

The DEO had directed school principals to hand over the information to the Sankul-level school heads and share it with the block resource coordinators.

The DEO, in his order also directed the sankul principal to provide loan to teachers, who wanted to purchase android-enabled mobile phones from their provident fund.

When contacted, Shinde said that the department was not forcing anyone to purchase android phones.

"The attendance of those who do not have such a phone or are unable to download the application will be monitored by the department separately," he said.

The district teachers’ association, protesting against the DEO’s directive, said they were not adverse to the e-attendance, but was concerned about the recurring financial burden on the teachers.

Teachers are not against e-attendance, but against purchase of android mobile phones, which would prove to be a be a financial burden for the teachers along with a recurring expense of internet connection, said state adhyapak sangh president Bharat Bhargava.