Lucknow, Jul 16 (IANS): The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to suspend the implementation of digital attendance system for two months following widespread protests by the government school teachers across the state.

M.K. Shanmuga Sundaram, Principal Secretary (Basic Education), said on Tuesday that an expert committee will be formed to look into the issues of teachers in these two months.

Lakhs of teachers and 'Shiksha Mitras' (para teachers) in government schools have been opposing the decision since July 8, the first day of its implementation.

On July 8, only 2 per cent of 6.09 lakh teachers recorded their attendance digitally. And on July 10, even fewer teachers did so. The protest grew louder with teachers hitting the streets across the length and breadth of the state.

"But now it has been postponed for two months and the concern of teachers will be looked into," the Principal Secretary said over the phone.

Earlier in the day, Primary School Teachers' Association president Dinesh Chandra Sharma and other teachers' body leaders met Chief Secretary Manoj Kumar Singh.

"The teachers' side was presented in the meeting held with the Chief Secretary. After hearing our side, the Chief Secretary has decided to postpone the digital presence and form a committee to look into the issues raised by the teachers," Sharma claimed in a post on X where he shared photos of his meeting with the Chief Secretary.

On July 12, the government softened its stand when it announced that teachers can use the digitised register app throughout the entire school period.

"Until the process for recording teacher attendance is fully established, the digitised register app is available anytime during the school hours," said the Director General of School Education, Kanchan Verma.

On July 12, the Basic Education Department waived the 8:30 a.m. restriction for uploading attendance, a day after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s intervention to resolve the deadlock between government school teachers and the Basic Education Department over digitisation of attendance.

The following day, district-level field officers visited various schools between 7:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. to help and encourage teachers to make use of the Prerna app to upload relevant information related to mid-day meals, students’ attendance, etc., without exerting pressure on teachers’ attendance. It was found that the app required updating.

Teachers said they were not opposing the online attendance system but wanted some of their demands to be fulfilled.

"We are not opposing online attendance. But we have other demands that must be fulfilled before the implementation of the online attendance system," said Vipin Kumar Bihari, a teacher body leader.

"There is no provision for earned leave (EL) or casual leave (CL) for teachers. So, teachers must be given 30 days EL and 14 days half CL. The government can do away with the June leave," said another teacher.

Vipin Kumar Bihari said the general public is under the misconception that "teachers are opposing online attendance".

He said no teacher in Uttar Pradesh is against online attendance, adding that teachers only want that before online attendance, infrastructure should be developed in which legitimate practical problems can be resolved.

Opposition leaders and BJP MLAs and MLCs also wrote to the Chief Minister seeking rollback of the digital attendance system.