Representative image
Credit: iStock Photo
Bengaluru: Having rolled out an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based attendance system that leverages Aadhaar-linked facial recognition for both teachers and students at government schools, the Department of School Education and Literacy has now decided to use the same system to record attendance of all the other personnel in the department.
On December 1, the biometric attendance system – in use at the office of the Commissioner of Public Instruction – was replaced with the mobile-based Karnataka Attendance Management System (KAMS).
A circular issued by the department to its staff directs all of them to register on the new system, besides informing them to mark their attendance on KAMS henceforth.
Those not marking their attendance on KAMS will be considered ‘absent’ for that day, and lose pay, besides risking disciplinary action, the circular read. The instructions are binding on all officials, including Deputy Directors of Public Instruction and Block Education Officers.
Biometric attendance systems require regular maintenance, pointed out the circular, by way of explaining the rationale for the switch to KAMS.
“The new system requires no physical intervention,” the circular stated.
In a bid to assist department personnel acquaint themselves with the new system, user manuals, published in both Kannada and English, have been issued to them. The KAMS has been designed by the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (e-Governance).
Department employees will have to use Aadhaar to register themselves on the new system, the link to which has been shared on the WhatsApp group created for employees of the office of the Commissioner of Public Instructions.
Currently, lecturers at a clutch of government pre-university colleges, where KAMS was set up on an experimental basis, are marking their attendance on the new system.
Sources in the department said that the new system was likely to be rolled out at all government schools and colleges from the next academic year.