Karwar: All the Teacher Education Institutes (TEI) of the country must compulsorily install biometric attendance system within 30 days. Those institutes which fail to adhere to the direction will have to lose their recognition. This strict direction was issued by the National Council for Teachers Education (NCTE) recently.

The plan for introducing biometric attendance system was mooted after there were allegations that some students of some teacher education institutes, who later become teachers, do not attend classes and directly take exams. The institutes were taking money from the students and letting them write exams.

Hence, the National Council for Teachers Education, a statutory body of the Union government, has come up this guideline.

In a circular, NCTE Member Secretary Sanjay Avasti said that the attendance of the students must be compulsorily uploaded on the website of the institute and NTCE officials will constantly monitor it. It has come to the notice of NCTE that the colleges and universities were not monitoring the attendance system in a transparent way. The new guideline will ensure that the quality of teachers’ training was maintained.

Meanwhile, Shivaji College of Education, Baad principal Shivanand Nayak has welcomed the direction of the Council.

Speaking to DH, he said that Karnatak University was also making a lot of efforts to make biometric attendance compulsory in all colleges coming under its purview. The direction of NCTE at this juncture will help maintain the quality of education at the national level.

He added that on the introduction of biometric attendance, students will have to attend classes, which will ensure their good education and will ultimately translate into good teaching for students.

He added that their college had introduced this system three years prior to the university making it mandatory.