Leaders of the Andhra Pradesh Teachers’ Federation (APTF) on Friday said they would wage a legal battle to prevent implementation of the face recognition app for registering of attendance by teachers in the State.
In a statement, federation president Ch. Manjula and general secretary K. Bhanu Murthy said they were in talks with other teacher unions to drum up support and also with legal experts “to thwart attempts to thrust the new attendance system on the teaching fraternity.”
Thursday’s talks between the representatives of various teacher unions and Education Minister Botcha Satyanarayana remained inconclusive, with the Minister making it clear that use of the app was mandatory for teachers.
Taking exception to the government decision, the APTF leaders said they had made their stand clear that they would not use their personal mobile phones to upload their attendance details and that the government should provide them devices.
They said the Minister had assured teachers that they would be given 15 days grace period to get used to the new system and, in the meanwhile, the officials would address technical glitches if any.
“But contrary to his assurance, the officials now say there is no grace period and that the teachers will have to switch to the new system of attendance with immediate effect,” they said.
Referring to the issue of 80% posts of Mandal Education Officer and Deputy District Education Officer lying vacant in the State, they said this was because the issue of common service rules was pending in court.
“Instead of solving the matter in the court, the government is trying to fill the vacant posts with headmasters of government schools,” they said, adding that the federation was opposed to this decision, which was in violation of the Supreme Court order.
Moreover, instead of filling the posts permanently, the government had asked the headmasters to take full additional charge as MEOs.
Referring to the government claim that it would sanction an additional 660 MEO posts, they demanded that the posts be filled with candidates from common list.
