WhatsApp to monitor students

Social networking messenger WhatsApp is to be used to improve the students and teachers attendance and ensure teachers are punctual and keep a watch on health condition of the students in the Tribal Ashram schools in the district.

As many as 150 smart phones are being given to the headmasters and principals to share information on WhatsApp with the officials of ITDA, Utnoor and for immediate action.

There are a total 168 Tribal Ashtram schools, Residential school, mini- Gurukulam, KGBV,  satellite centres (tribal schools) in the Adilabad district.          

The move was also aimed to improve the administration in the tribal Ashram schools and speedy transformation of information like health of the students if any such incident took place and also to improve the student and teachers attendance.

Project officer of ITDA R. V Karnan took the serious note of the rising students deaths caused by fevers in the Tribal Ashram Schools in the recent past and found negligence of the teaching staff in such incidents in the inquiry and suspended  regular teachers, contract residential teacher (CRT) and contract ANMs in such incidents holding them responsible for such incidents.         

The move was initiated following the survey report that teacher are not coming to schools in time and manipulating the students attendance.

A senior officer in the ITDA, Utnoor said, ‘they were in the process of finalizing the companies of cellphone services and looking at whether a particular cellphone service company having network in the interior areas where tribal school located’. Earlier, ITDA officials distributed landline phones to all the tribal schools to check the attendance and pass on information to officials.

It is learnt that officials of Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA), Utnoor, purchased smart phones each for Rs 7,000.

The school teachers and principals have to update the information to the ITDA officials about the attendance of the teachers and students, any incidents, photographs of the students suffering from ill health so that officials concerned can react immediately to the incidents and especially in health condition of the students in emergencies.