The government is all set to introduce biometric attendance device at every government primary school within this month in order to ensure cent percent presence of teachers.
The presence will be ensured through the fingerprint of the concerned teachers at the primary school whereas upazila primary education officials will monitor the system.
According to the Government Primary Education Department, the country has 65601 primary schools where 322766 teachers are working.
Till date, some schools already have biometric attendance system but a large portion is still out of this digital attendance system.
Each of them is being subjected to this digital appearance. Elementary level teachers are required to attend school from 9am to 5pm.
Secretary of the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education, Akram Al-Hussein told Bangladesh post, "We want to make sure 100 percent attendance of the teachers at their respective educational institutions." That is why this initiative has been taken. They will install it in their own schools, he added.
He also said, the device already has been purchased in many Upazilas. The new system will confirm the absence of a teacher on a certain date.
The device will also identify whether any teacher appeared late in the school. This decision will bring positive results in the field of primary education as a whole, he continued.
It was known that the teachers at different primary schools in different regions remain busy in other activities not attending the school.
In haor areas, teachers remain busy harvesting paddy, or in hill region, the attendance of primary teachers decrease during the cultivation season.
Apart from this, allegation has also been raised against the primary teachers that they come to school late and only sign the attendance sheet.
Some guardians expressed their deep concern that their children’s study hampers due to the absence of the teachers.
In some schools, it was also found that many teaches take hired teachers (called para teachers) who give proxy attendance for the actual teacher.
Taking all those issues in consideration, the government has decided to start biometric attendance to stop these irregularities.
According to sources, the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education has made the final decision in this regard last March.
After this, a letter from the Directorate of Primary Education was sent to all the District Primary Education Officers on June 24.
In the letter signed by Enamul Quader Khan, all elementary schools were instructed to purchase this biometric attendance machine from their Sleep (School Level Improvement Plan-school-level development plan) fund within 2-5 years.
Anisul Islam, head of khanchanpur primary School at Netrakona District told Bangladesh post, “I have already got the money. I will spend this money to purchase this device and solve some other problems.”