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Corona scare forces govt to suspend biometric attendance for teachers
With the number of coronavirus cases on the rise in the country, the Tamil Nadu government has decided to suspend the biometric attendance system for teachers in government schools as a precautionary measure. The government advisory for avoiding biometric attendance came against the backdrop of feedback from teachers and parents on the threat perception posed by the deadly virus.
By
migrator
migrator
Chennai
The School Education Department had recently installed the bio-metric attendance system for teaching and non-teaching staff in more than 5,000 State-run schools. A senior official from the Directorate of School Education told DT Next that the government has decided to exempt its teachers from registering their attendance on the biometric system.
“A circular, suspending bio-metric attendance method till March 31, has been issued in this regard by the authorities concerned,” said the official adding that even private institutions in the State will also be told to avoid bio-metric attendance system for its staff for the time being.
In addition, the government has also listed several precautionary measures that have been adopted by the school management until the end of this academic session.
However, the official made it clear that proper manual attendance register will be maintained in all the government and government-aided schools and the management of the State-run institutions will have to send the attendance data to their respective district education officer on a weekly basis.
Explaining that the bio-metric applicants carry micro-organisms on the skin of the hands when presenting for fingerprint capturing, the official said there are possibilities that surviving organism are picked up by the fingers of the next applicant.
“The manual attendance is only for a short period of time. The biometric system will continue once the coronavirus threat disappears. Moreover, with the summer holidays expected to start in the mid of April the manual attendance would be only for a few weeks,” he pointed out.
Fresh guidelines to schools
The School Education Department has issued fresh instructions to schools to keep them combat-ready in the wake of coronavirus scare. The circular has asked all the schools including private institutions to ensure that all the students have access to water and soap for washing their hands, based on their requirements.
Accordingly, if any student or teacher or non-teaching staff has a fever, they should avoid coming to school. Students appearing for board exams have been advised to keep good health by following all the precautionary instructions so that they could appear for the annual exam in good spirits.
Teachers were also asked to create awareness among students about preventive interventions that would help in preventing and reducing transmission of not only coronavirus but also a large number of other communicable diseases.
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