As part of ongoing effort to make the government schools of Uttar Pradesh digitally active, the Yogi government has issued instructions to digitise all 12 types of registers in the schools across the state, along with providing facilities for digital marking of attendance for both teachers and students.

Under this, both students and teachers will be required to mark their attendance using a face recognition system on tablets. This process will be implemented across the state starting July 15, officials here on Sunday said.

It is noteworthy that the Yogi government has been emphasising on digitisation of all types of work in government schools for quite some time. As part of this effort, a digital module has been prepared on the Prerna Portal (App for Teaching and Para-Teaching Staff of Primary and Upper Primary Schools of Basic Shiksha Department) to digitise all 12 types of registers in these schools. Additionally, tablets and SIM cards have been provided to schools for digital attendance.

Director General, School Education, Kanchan Verma has instructed all district Basic Education Officers to fill all registers of government schools digitally. Attendance, admissions, classroom-wise student attendance, mid-day meals, distribution of integrated free materials, stock, income-expenditure and cheque matters, meetings, inspections, correspondence, child census, and library and sports registers have been digitised.

A new module named Digital Registers has been developed on the Prerna Portal for simplified registration and technology-based digital usage. The digital format of the registers has been prepared following the physical registers currently being used. Accordingly, all entries will now be recorded on the digital platform.

The teacher attendance register is included among the 12 digital registers. Consequently, all working teachers and staff in the school will have to digitally record their attendance daily from arrival to departure. According to the directives, all teachers will mark their attendance from 7:45 to 8:00 AM upon arrival and from 2:15 to 2:30 PM upon departure, from April 1 to September 30.

From October 1 to March 31, attendance will be marked from 8:45 to 9:00 AM upon arrival and from 3:15 to 3:30 PM upon departure. Currently, until further notice, teachers will mark their attendance from 7:15 to 7:30 AM upon arrival and from 1:30 to 1:45 PM upon departure. Attendance will not be valid after the stipulated time.

The department has provided 2,09,863 tablets for the use of teachers in council primary/composite schools. The process of providing tablets for teachers in council higher primary schools is underway. In these schools, all teachers and staff will mark their attendance daily on the Prerna portal using their mobile numbers and smartphones.

Subsequently, attendance will be verified by the headmaster. Tablets and smartphones will be identified through geofencing, and it will be mandatory for teachers and headmasters to be present on the school premises when marking attendance on the portal.

Similarly, the daily attendance of all the students will be recorded on the class-wise student attendance register. For students, attendance will be marked from 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM from April 1 to September 30, and from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM from October 1 to March 31. Currently, attendance will be marked from 7:30 AM to 8:30 AM until further notice.

Additionally, during enrollment, students’ complete details can be entered into the digital registration. This includes the student’s name, gender, date of birth, parent details and Aadhaar number among other things. Upon enrollment, the system will provide a unique identification number, which will be recorded in the digital register by the headmaster.

Furthermore, the student’s details will be filled out or updated through the Prerna Portal/Prerna DBT App. The details of passing the last class and issuing the transfer certificate for other schools will also be recorded in the digital registration.