A mobile application launched to monitor the attendance of teachers and students in government schools has drawn the ire of teachers who are threatening to take to the streets against it.
The application, Prerna, launched in August and being tested in Kanpur, Lucknow and Bahraich, is set to roll out throughout government schools in Uttar Pradesh on September 5 (Teacher’s Day). Its most contentious feature is its requirement for selfies three times a day—when school opens, during midday meal and when school shuts—to establish teachers' and students' attendance. Those opposing it say it is a tool of intrusive surveillance and adds to the workload of the state’s already overworked teachers.
Sushil Kumar Pandey, president of the Uttar Pradesh Prathmik Shikshak Sangh, a 2-lakh-strong body of primary teachers, told THE WEEK, “It is not practical to monitor attendance in such a manner, when neither internet connectivity nor internet recharges has been provided by the government.”
Women teachers have added to that criticism by holding forth that their photos and those of their female students are liable to be misused. “How do we know where these photos are going? What is the assurance that these are secure?” asked one teacher from a school where the application is currently being tested.
Pandey says that his union will be protesting against the Prerna app at all district headquarters on September 4. If the government refuses to take back its order mandating its use, the teachers will undertake a state-wide torch rally on September 16.
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Prerna is also facing flak for its patchy functionality. Available on digital distribution platforms and described as as an “online survey for students, which comes under Uttar Pradesh government”, it has an average user rating of 2.4. Of the 703 reviews that it had received at the time of filing this report, most were unflattering. One user called it the “worst app”, another wrote “this app frustrates you while feeding the data” and a third said “user interface is highly irritating”. Prerna has been downloaded more than 100,000 times.
This is not the first time that the state government has put technology to use to check teacher and student absenteeism. In 2018, an interactive voice-recording system of attendance had been criticised over the possibility of doctoring recordings.
Swati Singh, a government school teacher, told THE WEEK that while the idea of the app was good, it had failed to consider practical challenges. “Teachers in rural areas cover long distances to get to schools. Transport is also a challenge. Just being in time for the all-important selfie does not make sense.”
As per data from the government-managed Uttar Pradesh Education for All website, the state has 1,13,249 primary schools with 3,99,273 teachers. According to the Annual Status of Education Report, 2018, teacher attendance in primary schools is 85.2 per cent while student attendance stands at 59.9 per cent, both below the national average.
