While acknowledging the recently launched TAMS (Teachers Attendance Monitoring System)/SMILE (Smart attendance Management and Informative Leave) Apps, to ensure work for pay and also to enhance educational mechanism is a welcome sight to heading towards excellence.
However, echoing and rallying behind some of my fellow teachers/writers/authors on this issue who had voiced their concerns and grievances against various setbacks, I would also like to supplement or add some few points likewise.
Firstly, as meticulously pointed out by other writers, there are system failures vis-a-vis inaccurate readings like marking a teacher as ‘Late or Absent’ despite being in time or being present, which candidly as a result does not quite address the issue to which this whole ‘hypothesis’ is based upon.
According to this new monitoring system teachers are to parade ourselves in front of this digital camera mechanism (provided by the Govt.) twice a day to register puntualities, sign-in and sign out which again is continuously and frustratingly accompanied and shadowed by technical snags.
So, the bone of contention here is, even after all these fuss and commotions if we are still bogged down by these unnecessary hassles and that which if it goes on, then perhaps this is more a harrassment and torment rather aiming to reach its zenith of paradigm shift in educational system. The endgame as a result is but a ‘Farce’ rather than ‘Reality’
Secondly, while the concept, TAMS (Teachers Attendance Management System) as the name suggests may explicitly be confined to teachers alone, yet the concept SMILE (Smart attendance Management and Informative Leave) may perhaps not be categorically or necessarily confined only to teachers but to all government employees as well, since the matter of the fact here is, not only teachers are the payed/salaried Govt. servants/employees.
Thirdly, not only in the Educational departments are there, these contemplating issues like puntualities or proxies or irregularities etc, but these same menace could well be existing in other Departments too, so here’s the catch. If at all, someone is to opine that, there are no such anomalies in other departments and everything is crystal clear and 100% clean, then we leave it to God to judge, but if not, is this not discrimination at its highest????
Afterall, at the end of the day, teachers too are also only but humans.
Amento Sema GT
Dimapur