Now software decides: Inter-district transfer of ZP teachers underway in Maharashtra

“The inter-district transfers of teachers in ZP schools have started from midnight between August 19 and 20,” zilla parishad CEO Ayush Prasad told The Indian Express Saturday. For the first time, the decision-making has been handed over to a software based on a fixed set of rules, he added.

The software, said Prasad, has started the process of transfers adhering to all rules as per the government resolution of April 7, 2021. “The software is completely automated without any possibility of human intervention. The entire log book of each rule applied and each decision taken is maintained and can be viewed,” he said.

Automated decision making

Officials said the software can run up to 34 loops. In the simplest loop, for instance, a teacher from Pune would be transferred to Satara and a teacher from Satara to Pune. In a loop of three districts, a teacher from Pune will go to Satara, a teacher from Satara will go to Solapur and the teacher from Solapur will be shifted to Pune – thereby filling mutual vacancies. “The most complex operation that would be carried out by the software would be to create a loop of all 34 zilla parishads in the state,” Prasad said.

“This is a solution that is using parallel computer blockchain and hyper processing to compute ‘n raised to n’ permutations and combinations to produce the most optimum computed outcomes on very complex data and multiple rule processing without a single human intervention,” explained Nilesh Devidas, CTO of Vinsys, the company contracted to develop and maintain the software.

“It is an example of artificial intelligence. Most software used in government are for collecting data, populating dashboards, fetching stored data with the aim of facilitating decision-making by the concerned official. Pune zilla parishad has previously used automation to verify eligibility in Mahalabharthi Software. I have had the difficult job of explaining to highly influential persons why I cannot help with the transfer of their close relative, because the system is totally automated and rule-bound,” he said.

Supercomputing power

For the inter-district transfer, six nodes consisting of eight virtual machine CPUs in each of the nodes, hosted on a cloud, are being used to compute the data in 14 rounds. The data computation is expected to take 31 hours. A blockchain has been created to enhance computing power, Prasad said. “In simple words, 48 computers would be computing continuously for 31 hours to process the data. Each calculation and each decision of each of the computers is being recorded in the logbook.”

Data correctness

Extensive administrative steps have also been taken, such as approval by divisional commissioners for caste category rosters in each cadre of teachers in each district, officials said. An online social audit of data entered by teachers was conducted. The complete transparency helped the system earn the confidence of the teachers, Prasad said. The ZP CEO said the policy for the transfer of teachers was enacted after extensive consultations with teachers and their unions. “Social media was used to elicit opinion and facilitate debate on several contentious issues. The policy has been accepted wholeheartedly by all sections of teachers,” he added.

Security audit

Prasad said a Cert-IN security certificate, Standardisation Testing and Quality Certification (STQC) compliance, internal compliance to maintain Sigma-6 rating of the software, App Scan and other security certificates have been taken. “The cloud provider is authorised to provide services to banks and provides such services to several banks and several Union and state governments,” he pointed out.

Audit trail

All data is stored in an audit ledger with blockchain unmodified pattern. All data modification requires an OTP authentication from the respective data owner, officials added.