Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: The state education department has decided to install biometric attendance machines at all roughly 9,500 junior colleges in Maharashtra on its own to ensure students meet the minimum requirement of 75% class attendance.
Mahesh Palkar, the director of education (secondary and higher secondary), told TOI on Sunday that the proposal worth Rs 100 crore has been drafted, and the machines will be installed during the academic year 2026-27 after a formal nod from govt.
“We cannot rely on biometric attendance machines of colleges as they could be prone to tampering. The state education department is ready to bear the expenses towards the installation of machines and their operational cost,” he said.
The proposed high-tech measure, which is being implemented in the wake of the NEET paper leak scam exposed in Maharashtra, will, more importantly, also facilitate real-time biometric tracking of students, Palkar said.
In the recent past, strict enforcement of the mandatory 75% attendance criteria was mooted by the state education department, but the authorities allegedly dragged their feet due to pressure from different quarters, including the political field.
Academic experts have been stressing the need to enforce mandatory 75% biometric attendance for students to appear for the Class XII examination. The measure is pressed to cut alleged unholy ties between a large section of junior colleges and several coaching classes.
Educationist Heramb Kulkarni said the root cause of the NEET paper leak scam lies in the fact that a considerable number of students do not physically attend junior colleges. “Had the students attended their junior colleges on a full-time basis, the market for these coaching classes would never have flourished. Therefore, for the current academic year, decisive measures such as biometric attendance and CCTV surveillance are a must,” he said.
Kulkarni also said that revoking the self-financed status of any college that has been acquired or is run by coaching centres, and derecognising any college where student attendance is found to be lacking, are imperative.
Dr Shrirang Deshpande, the general secretary of Shri Saraswati Bhuvan Education Society, said the requirement of a minimum 75% attendance in junior colleges must be monitored with a vigilant eye.
“Online admission processes should be overhauled, as it allows coaching class operators to influence students — particularly those from rural areas — into listing specific ’tied-up’ colleges as their preferred choices,” he said.
