Nagpur: The coaching class-junior college partnership and the mass bunking phenomena seems to be under no threat at all, even though
biometric attendance has been made mandatory on campus.
TOI has learnt about at least two colleges in the city that are mulling installation of the biometric system on the premises of their partner coaching institute. With the government not mandating any GPS mapping for the biometric device, there is no stopping unscrupulous colleges from circumventing the rules.
State education minister Vinod Tawde told TOI on Monday that he will update the government’s directive to reflect a mandatory GPS mapping clause. TOI spoke to three different dealers in biometric attendance systems and all of them confirmed that by default, these devices come without GPS technology.
Though none of them wanted to be named as they deal with educational institutes too, the dealers said there was no way the ‘fraud’ could be found out if the client did not wish it. “GPS mapping can be a value added service with cloud-based software but rarely does the client opt for it. And yes, it is very much possible for colleges to install such devices at coaching classes and the monthly report won’t reflect the location. So on paper, the students would have marked their attendance on college campus itself,” said one of the dealers.
The state’s decision to make biometric attendance mandatory is the result of students bunking regular lectures at junior colleges en masse and attending coaching class instead. Government-aided colleges were losing out on enrolment as students took admission in little known and unaided colleges which overlooked mass bunking.
The financial partnership between colleges and coaching classes ensures that the wheels of the multi-crore business keep moving smoothly.
An association representing principals of aided colleges had last month appealed to their members to ignore the mandatory attendance rule. An office bearer of the Headmasters Association told TOI, “That’s the only way we could fill up our seats. Students are moving in hordes to colleges that you have never heard of, only because their fake attendance is marked there.”
Falling enrolment means job of lecturers is under threat, as appointment is related directly to student numbers.
Meanwhile, the local education department has started gathering data from colleges about whether or not they have installed biometric machines on campus. But till the government specifically mentions “GPS mapping” as mandatory, the officials won’t be able to act on it.
