UP Teachers' Protests Against Online Attendance Show Even Simple Tweaks Are Hard To Implement In State

A simple order of the Uttar Pradesh government asking Basic Shiksha Parishad teachers and non-teaching staff to mark their attendance online has not gone down well.

The order was to be implemented from Monday (8 July), a week ahead of the earlier plan of implementation from 15 July.

However, only 2 per cent of the 6.09 lakh government teachers and 'shiksha mitras' (para teachers) marked their attendance online on the first day.

Moreover, their disapproval of the online attendance system was not limited to the boycott, thousands of them hit the streets to protest against the order.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's main rival in the state, Samajwadi Party (SP) national president Akhilesh Yadav was quick to support the protesting teachers.

He claimed that there might be multiple reasons for a teacher to arrive late at the school and the new system puts unnecessary pressure on them leading to many accidents.

Yadav demanded that this system should be first implemented on administrative officers and claimed that the distrust of the government in teachers will negatively affect their teaching.

The protesting teachers claimed that the schools are situated in rural areas, where proper infrastructure is not available, making it difficult to reach on time.

Some of the protesting teachers said that if their other demands for cashless medical facilities and leave provisions are fulfilled, they will cooperate with the online attendance system.

Some videos surfaced on social media where teachers were seen teaching with a black band tied on their arms, as a mark of protest.

Meanwhile, Dainik Bhaskar reports that the decision to online attendance can be rolled back after discussions took place between the teachers' union and the Basic Education Department.

Already, a leniency of 30 minutes has been given to teachers after protests. Earlier, the teachers were required to mark their attendance by 8 am, now that has been extended to 8:30 am.

While the government teachers are protesting against online attendance, one has to agree that it is a norm in most of the private sector jobs.