Staff Reporter
Guwahati: The Department of School Education is concerned over the low attendance of students in schools despite taking up measures and issuing strict orders regarding the same. The department has earlier mandated regular attendance of at least 80% of students, as well as timely arrival and departure of teachers.
In a significant move aimed at strengthening student attendance across all government and provincialised schools, the department has issued a directive making compulsory the daily capture of student attendance through the Shiksha Setu platform.
According to the official order, the Director of Secondary Education and the Director of Elementary Education have been instructed to hold regular meetings with Inspectors of Schools, District Elementary Education Officers (DEEOs), and Block Elementary Education Officers (BEEOs) to ensure the effective implementation of this initiative.
The Inspectors, DEEOs, and BEEOs are now expected to proactively engage with schools on a daily basis to monitor and enhance both student and teacher attendance. Furthermore, school principals and head teachers have been entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring that attendance for all classes is accurately recorded every day.
In an effort to streamline and regularize attendance in schools, the authorities have issued a directive mandating strict compliance with attendance protocols through the Shiksha Setu Portal.
As per an order, it is now compulsory for all teachers, except those on official leave, training, or other duties, to mark their daily attendance via the portal. Heads of institutions and class teachers in government and provincialised schools have been entrusted with the responsibility to ensure this practice is followed without fail.
To improve reliability, the directive encourages taking attendance in offline or flight mode, with timely synchronisation of data, preferably within school hours. Teachers' in-time and out-time entries are to be closely monitored for consistency.
Further strengthening the system, Cluster Resource Centre Coordinators (CRCCs) are required to monitor attendance in their respective clusters on a daily basis, while BEEOs are instructed to conduct video conferences with CRCCs regularly to review progress.
Additionally, it is now mandatory for CRCCs and teachers to submit their own attendance via the portal. In a bid to reduce student absenteeism, the order directs that if any student is absent for more than four days, the head of institution and the concerned class teacher must visit the student's home to ascertain the cause and facilitate their return to school. The attendance status on the Shiksha Setu portal will be reviewed at regular intervals, the directive says.
Meanwhile, education officials said that the regular attendance of students is being monitored on a daily basis, and schools showing low attendance are to be show-caused.
Regarding the 7 schools under the Ramkrishnanagar Education Block in the Sribhumi district, which displayed attendance between 0 and 20 students, as per the Shiksha Setu portal on May 27, the BEEO concerned has issued a strongly worded letter to the head teachers of the schools.
The letter says that the student attendance as mentioned above for May 27, 2025, is 'very worst performance' and 'gross negligence in duties', which has been done in spite of repeated instructions from all concerned higher authorities, and is nothing but 'insubordination to higher authority'.
Moreover, it says that the head teachers have been receiving their monthly salary regularly by doing such negligence in assigned duties, which is also 'nothing but the misappropriation of government funds'. Also, that it is a violation of the Right to Education Act, 2009, without giving quality education to students.
Considering the circumstances, the head teachers were asked to show cause as to why a proposal for disciplinary action should not be initiated by the higher authority and were directed to furnish satisfactory replies by May 30, 2025.
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