Roll calls to end in Telangana government junior colleges; attendance to be recorded this way

The Intermediate Education Department decided to introduce facial recognition system in all 424 government junior colleges to tackle absenteeism

Hyderabad: In a move to tackle absenteeism in the government junior colleges (GJCs), the Intermediate Education Department decided to introduce a facial recognition system (FRS) for recording attendance of students from the next academic year. This new system, which ends roll calls and marking attendance in registers, is aimed at monitoring students’ attendance more effectively.

Apart from monitoring students’ turn up on a daily basis, parents will be informed about their wards absence from the college. “If a student is absent for four to five consecutive days, the college concerned will inform the parents. The new system is aimed at increasing attendance percentage in the colleges,” said S Krishna Aditya, Director of Intermediate Education.

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The move by the department comes following a large absenteeism in the colleges. There are 424 GJCs in the State with a total of 2,88,310 seats, including 1,44,460 in first year and 1,43,850 in second year. However, only 1.6 lakh students enrolled with 80,000 in first year and 78,000 in second year this academic year.

Attendance in these colleges has become a cause for concern for officials as, on average, 40 per cent of students are found not attending classes. This has been revealed during recent inspections conducted by officials deputed by the department. As per officials’ observation, students’ attendance was low in several colleges in Kamareddy, Adilabad, Asifabad, Sircilla, and Karimnagar districts.

To begin with, the new system will be introduced for the government junior lecturers, doing away with the present practice of recording attendance via a biometric system. It will be extended to students as well.

For this, the FRS devices will be installed in all the GJCs before the commencement of the fresh academic year. “A FRS device will be installed in the colleges based on the enrolment, and, shortly, tenders will be called via Telangana Technology Services for procuring and installation of the devices,” a senior official said.

Further, the department set a target of increasing admissions by 60 per cent over and above the present enrolment. For this, the GJCs have been asked to undertake an admission drive by visiting feeder government schools in the GJC region. The officials have been asked to inform parents and students about the facilities being provided in the colleges, qualified lecturers and free education, along with textbooks.