Teachers oppose app-based attendance system

A section of Delhi University teachers on Wednesday opposed the centralised app-based attendance system, saying it may become a tool for harassment and may be used for "settling of scores".

The system is being run by the varsity on a pilot basis in a few colleges.

In a letter to the university Vice Chancellor Yogesh Tyagi, the teachers argued that such a system will only come at the cost of hindering flow of knowledge among students and teachers.

"Measures like app-based attendance do not take the soul of academics into account and are aimed at only keeping time and not its quality," read the letter signed by a number of teachers, a few of whom are members of statutory councils of the varsity.

"Such an app-based attendance will provide a handy format to victimise a large number of teachers and settling of scores by the authorities," it read, adding, these are the reasons the Executive Council decided not to implement biometric attendance in 2009. 

A faculty member, one of the signatories, told IANS that the mobile application is being used in at least two colleges -- Acharya Narendra Dev College and Shivaji College -- on a pilot basis.

"The decision was taken after a committee was formed, constituted only of a few principals, and was not even discussed in the statutory bodies (Academic Council and Executive Council). Our argument is this that it should be discussed in the AC and EC," Rajesh Jha, a member of the Executive Council, said. 

He added that the university has not revealed any plan yet of uniformly implementing it across the colleges and departments under it. - IANS