Teachers have raised concern over lack of adequate time to update scholarship details of higher secondary students online and entry of student data on UDISE+ (Unified District Information System for Education Plus) of the Union government.
The last date for biometric authentication for scholarships for minorities should be extended to a date after schools reopen, the Higher Secondary School Teachers’ Association (HSSTA) has said in a statement.
The association said the direction to update online scholarship details of higher secondary students had put students and school authorities to hardship. Very little time was allowed to students who had applied for minority scholarships earlier to give biometric authentication on the National Scholarship Portal. The agency assigned the task had not been able to reach all schools. There were schools where the authentication had not even begun. Server problems too had proved a hurdle. Moreover, schools were on a vacation at present.
With the last date for the authentication being August 31, students stood to lose their scholarship for no fault of theirs or the school authorities, the HSSTA said.
Higher secondary data entry on UDISE+ too has not been completed. While school and teacher data were usually collected through UDISE+, details of all students from pre-primary to higher secondary had to be collected, as per a direction from the Director of General Education.
Apart from the 20-odd student details collected through Sampoorna portal, additional 45 field details and data on pre-primary, Plus One, and Plus Two students that were not available on Sampoorna had to be uploaded. As part of this, data of current Plus Two students as well as those who passed out last year had to be submitted.
Teachers did not have many of the details sought of students who passed out last year, nor was there time to collect them as the portal would lock on August 31, the HSSTA said.
Though the Samagra Shiksha, Kerala had reportedly received a communication from the Union government about uploading student data earlier, only recently had these reached schools, the HSSTA alleged.
It also pointed out that though there had been concern over collection of personal data of students and parents, they had not received any word about not uploading such details either.
The late date for biometric authentication and uploading data on UDISE+ should be extended, particularly as schools were closed since August 25, the HSSTA said.
