Srinagar, Aug 08: The School Education Department of Jammu and Kashmir has introduced a comprehensive attendance monitoring and verification framework aimed at ensuring greater transparency, accountability and accuracy in the attendance records of teachers and students across all Government Schools of the Union Territory.
The directions were issued by Commissioner/Secretary to the Government, School Education Department, Ram Niwas Sharma.
The department said the new framework has been necessitated by inputs suggesting that, in some instances, student attendance was being recorded through the JK Smart Attendance application without physical verification of students’ presence in classrooms. It said such practices could undermine the reliability and sanctity of attendance records.
Under the new directions, teachers will be personally responsible for verifying the physical presence of students in classrooms during the relevant instructional period. Attendance through the JK Smart Attendance application will not be uploaded unless the teacher has personally verified the presence of students.
The department has also made it mandatory for every government school to maintain a class-wise manual attendance register as a supporting institutional record. Attendance must be recorded twice daily—at the commencement of the school day and again before departure—and duly authenticated by the concerned teacher.
The manual register will serve as the primary reference document for inspection, verification and audit purposes. Any discrepancy between manual and digital attendance records will have to be examined by the Head of Institution, who will be required to record the reasons and take appropriate corrective action.
Heads of Institutions have been entrusted with overall responsibility for maintaining the credibility and accuracy of attendance records. They have been directed to conduct surprise checks of both manual and digital attendance records and furnish a monthly certificate confirming that attendance has been physically verified, manual and digital records reconciled, and no fictitious or proxy attendance recorded.
The department has further directed Chief Education Officers, Zonal Education Officers and other supervisory authorities to conduct regular inspections and cross-verify attendance records with manual registers, JK Smart Attendance data and the actual presence of students and staff.
Schools showing unusually high attendance, including 100 per cent attendance for extended periods, or abnormal attendance patterns have been identified for priority inspection.
The circular also makes attendance verification an integral part of academic, administrative and supervisory inspections. Inspecting officers will be required to verify the physical presence of students, correspondence between manual and digital attendance records, attendance of teaching personnel, classroom environment, teacher-student interaction and the actual conduct of teaching-learning activities.
The department has prescribed minimum monthly inspection targets for various supervisory authorities. The Commissioner/Secretary to the Government, School Education Department, will inspect at least one school every month, while the Directors of School Education, Jammu and Kashmir, will each inspect five schools.
Chief Education Officers and Zonal Education Officers have been directed to inspect 10 schools every month under their respective jurisdictions. Cluster Heads will inspect all schools within their clusters at least once every quarter, besides conducting random monthly verification of attendance records.
The prescribed targets have been described as minimum benchmarks, with authorities empowered to undertake additional inspections whenever considered necessary.
The department has warned that deliberate manipulation of attendance, fictitious recording, proxy marking, unauthorised uploading of attendance or material discrepancies between manual and digital records will be treated as serious administrative lapses and may invite disciplinary action under applicable service rules.
The Directors of School Education, Jammu and Kashmir, have also been directed to prepare a consolidated monthly compliance report covering inspections conducted by various supervisory authorities, major observations and deficiencies, remedial measures taken and the status of compliance. The report is to be submitted to the Administrative Department by the 7th day of the succeeding month.
The circular places primary responsibility for implementation on Heads of Institutions, while Cluster Heads, Zonal Education Officers and Chief Education Officers will be accountable for effective supervision, monitoring and enforcement within their respective jurisdictions.
The department has called for strict compliance with the new attendance monitoring framework across all Government Schools of the Jammu and Kashmir.
