Shillong, June 25: School teachers in East Jaintia Hills District on Sunday threatened to resort to agitation if the district administration fails to halt its move to implement the Ubiattendance App which seeks to monitor the attendance of teachers in the schools.
Under the banner of the Jaintia Hills Lower Primary School Teachers Association (JHLPSTA) Khliehriat Unit and Meghalaya SSA Schools Association (MSSASA) East Jaintia Hills District Unit, the teachers have also decided not to attend the training programme organized by the district mission coordinator (DMC) as per direction of the deputy commissioner from June 26 to 28.
“After the half-yearly examinations, we will take stern decision on the matter. We will organize a sit-in-demonstration in front of the DC’s office to demand the immediate halt of the move to implement the Ubiattendance App,” MSSASA president Aristotle C Rymbai said here.
“We also urge all teachers not to attend the training programme organized by the DMC from June 26 to 28 since we have already submitted a letter on June 19, expressing our strong opposition against the implementation of this particular App,” he added.
The decision was taken after the deputy commissioner had issued an order on June 21, directing the implementation of the Ubiattendance App in the district.
The DC has directed the DMC and SDSEO of the district to direct all the teachers working in government, government-aided and SSA to register and use the Ubiattendance App with effect from July 1.
Rymbai however said that the two associations had also sought the intervention of the education minister Rakkam A Sangma on June 23 into the proposed implementation of the Ubiattendance App in the state.
“We were surprise learn from the minister that the DC is implementing the Ubiattendance App without the approval of the state government. Accordingly, the minister has directed the Director of School Education and Literacy (DSEL) to seek a clarification from the deputy commissioner of East Jaintia Hills and to submit a report on the matter,” he said while adding “We are also surprised by the letter issued by the DMC to the cluster resource persons to organize training on how to use the Ubiattendance App.”
“Therefore, we condemned the action of the DMC to conduct training at a time when all the schools are conducting their half-yearly exams. The question arises whether the teachers should go to schools to conduct the exams or attend the trainings. This clearly shows that the two offices of the deputy commissioner and DMC are not concern about the problems faced by the students but they are more concern about how to implement the Ubiattendance App which we feel is highly unacceptable,” he further stated.
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