Akhilesh Yadav slams UP government for suspending digital attendance system in schools

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], July 17 (ANI): Samajwadi Party (SP) Chief Akhilesh Yadav has criticised the Uttar Pradesh government for suspending the implementation of the digital attendance system in state-run schools ahead of the upcoming by-elections.

He said that the BJP’s true nature has been revealed to teachers and the general public.

“Due to fear of defeat in the bye-elections, the BJP government has postponed the order of ‘digital attendance’ of teachers and ‘demolition of Pantnagar and Indraprastha’ in Lucknow. This should be completely cancelled,” Akhilesh Yadav said in a post on X on Tuesday.

He added, “The BJP’s true face has been revealed to teachers and the common people. Teachers and the public will not only defeat the BJP in the bye-elections but in every future election. The people have used the bulldozer of their power against the BJP government’s tyranny.”

Following controversies surrounding the digital attendance system, the Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday decided to form an expert committee under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary to address the problems and suggestions of teachers.

This committee will include officials of the Education Department, members of the Teachers’ Union, educationists, etc., and will listen to the problems and suggestions of teachers and submit its report. The committee will consider all the dimensions of education and give suggestions for improvement.

Digital attendance will be kept suspended till further orders. A decision will be taken on the basis of the committee’s report.

Additional Chief Secretary of Secondary Education Deepak Kumar, Principal Secretary of Basic Education Dr Shamuga Sundaram, Director General School Education Kanchan Verma, State President of Uttar Pradesh Primary Teachers’ Association Dr Dinesh Chandra Sharma, and other senior officials were present in the meeting.

Earlier, the Yogi government had issued instructions to implement a digital attendance system for both teachers and students to make state-run schools more digitally active. Under this system, both students and teachers would be required to mark their attendance using a face recognition system.