App to keep tab on students' attendance in Delhi University

New Delhi: A year after the admission process in Delhi University went completely online, the mechanism for marking and tracking attendance of students is also set to go online. For this purpose, the varsity is planning to launch a mobile application in order to maintain accountability and transparency in attendance.

Last year, DU had set up a seven-member committee, which has been working on the said application since then. “The project has been going on for around six months now and the app is expected to be launched next month. This will help teachers keep a tab on daily class strength and show the percentage of attendance to help them inform the students about the shortage in advance,” a senior DU official said.

At present, the teachers maintain an attendance register manually and some colleges, including Hindu, Miranda House and IP College for Women, update the students attendance on their website on a monthly basis. “But once this online app is launched, the teachers have to update the attendance on a daily basis,” the official said.

“Attendance data is very crucial for students, especially at the time of issuance of admit cards for exams. Students always come up with complaints that teachers do not maintain accurate attendance sheets,” the official added.

This will be a centralised app for all departments and faculty members of 68 colleges affiliated to the university. “The main objective behind this move is to avoid the panicking situation among students during the exams as DU does not allow students with less than 66 per cent to appear for exams,” the official said.

Even students welcomed this move as they believe digitisation of attendance is the best way to do justice to them. “At times, it happens that despite being a regular student, the att-endance is not marked. In-troducing an online app for marking regular attendance will make the work much easier,” said a second year student Vidisha Arora.