Bihar is using an app to track teachers’ attendance – much to their anger

In August, the Bihar government announced that government-school teachers would have to start marking their attendance on an app – it warned that if they did not start doing so, money would be deducted from their salaries in a few months.

The government introduced the app, e-Shikshakosh, for a three-month trial in June, and continued its use afterwards, though it also maintained manual attendance records. To mark their attendance with the app, teachers had to upload a photo of themselves from their school campuses between 8.30 and 9 every morning. The app recorded their locations, and accepted their attendance if they were within 500 metres of the campus.

If the threat to cut teachers’ salaries was not enough of a sign of the government’s seriousness about the new attendance system, in late October, a teacher from Bihar was suspended after she was found to have repeatedly marked her attendance on the app while sitting in her car.

Despite the government’s enthusiasm for the app, teachers in Bihar that Scroll spoke to said they were deeply unhappy with it – they observed that the system was inefficient and error-prone, even as it placed an undue burden on teachers.

Scroll emailed the state’s department of education, seeking responses to the teacher’s complaints...

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