Dear Editor,
The recent announcement by the Ministry of Education regarding the nationwide rollout of biometric attendance systems is being framed as a “digital transformation” for the sake of our children. But beneath the shiny veneer of modernization lies a deeply troubling fiscal sleight of hand. By “suggesting” that schools use their own grants to purchase these fingerprint-based monitors, the Ministry is not just introducing a new tool; it is foisting an unfunded mandate onto an already strained system.
The irony is as thick as the dust in some of our older school buildings. We are told that these devices are necessary because a single ministerial visit turned up a dozen absent teachers. One wonders if the same logic of surveillance would be applied to the Ministry’s own headquarters if a citizen walked in and found an empty desk. Instead of addressing the root causes of teacher burnout or the structural decay of our classrooms, the subject minister has opted for a “big stick” approach that prioritizes policing over pedagogy.
Worse yet is the manner of payment. The school grant is the primary resource for the actual business of learning—it buys the chalk, the paper, the workbooks, and the basic consumables that keep a classroom functioning. By directing schools to dip into these funds to buy biometric hardware, the Ministry is effectively taxing the students’ education to pay for the teachers’ surveillance. It is a draconian requirement that transforms every Headteacher into a reluctant procurement officer for their own “watchdog.”
To claim there is “no pressure” on PTAs or schools is a textbook example of administrative gaslighting. In our highly centralized education system, a “standard specification” issued by the Minister is a mandate in all but name. Schools are left with a choice that is no choice at all: buy the monitor and starve the supply closet, or ignore the directive and face the wrath of the next ministerial audit.
If accountability is a national priority, it should be a national expense. To ask the school level to fund its own monitoring system while boasting of a multibillion-dollar education budget is not just ad-hoc policymaking; it is a bullying tactic that reveals a profound lack of respect for the educators and parents who keep our schools running. It is time we stop treating our teachers like suspects and start treating our school budgets like the sacred resources they are meant to be
Yours truly,
Hemdutt Kumar
