Andhra Pradesh: Network glitches mar teachers' attendance

Tirupati/ Vijayawada: The AP government's decision imposing facial attendance of teachers and students through an Artificial Intelligence-based App called 'AP SIMS' without strengthening the networking system and without providing broadband facilities in schools has led to the majority of the teachers across the state failing to register their attendance.

The teachers say that they are not opposed to the introduction of a face recognition system, but first the government should take arrangements to provide high-speed broadband service.

A teacher from Prakasam district said that there were 23 teachers in his school but of them only two could register their attendance. The rest of the teachers' network accessibility on their mobile phones was not strong and the servers were not supporting their efforts.

Similar complaints came in from Tirupati, Chittoor and other districts. According to the new rules which have come into force from August 15, the teachers are supposed to register their attendance by 9 am. If they fail to do so, they will lose half-day leave or salary. The teachers say that even the bio-metric system was not so successful because of network problems.

Many have given representations to the headmasters expressing their problems. Some teachers in Tirupati expressed apprehensions about security features pertaining to their personal data stored in mobile phones.

Some feel that the government should supply a dedicated mobile phone for face recognition.

They further claim that the teachers are already overloaded with umpteen number of other works besides teaching and demand to free them from all those additional responsibilities. When urban areas are facing network problems, what will happen to teachers in remote areas where no phone signals are available, the teachers ask.

Why should we lose half-day leave or salary for no fault of theirs, some questioned? It is not proper to harass the teachers like that, they said.

District general secretary of the United Teachers' Federation (UTF) K Muthyala Reddy told The Hans India that the government should keep the new rule in abeyance till network problems were resolved and separate devices are given to the teachers.