Aadhaar-based biometric attendance has been made compulsory in all madrasas across Uttar Pradesh. The Uttar Pradesh Madrasa Education Board has issued instructions in this regard to all District Minority Welfare Officers.
It is worth noting here that while biometric attendance was already mandatory for staff in all aided madrasas in the state, the system was not reportedly linked to Aadhaar-based authentication.
The new order mandates the daily attendance of teachers, non-teaching staff, as well as students to be recorded through biometric systems.
In madrasas where such an arrangement has not yet been fully implemented, officials have been directed to prioritise the installation of the required equipment and ensure that the system becomes operational at the earliest.
The state government’s objective behind the move is to ensure transparency, accountability, and regular attendance in madrasas.
The Madrasa Board has also instructed officials to continuously monitor the biometric attendance arrangement and ensure the timely resolution of any technical or administrative issues.
This comes more than a month after a case of alleged biometric attendance manipulation surfaced from UP’s Barabanki. In late April, a video on social media purportedly showed the attendance of teachers at a madrasa being marked using plastic cards instead of actual biometric verification.
The clip raised serious questions over monitoring mechanisms. The video came close on the heels of a similar case in Jaunpur, where fake attendance was allegedly marked using thumb impressions of a madrasa manager’s family members.
At the time, experts and officials had pointed to gaps such as lack of Aadhaar-based face authentication, limited inspections, and offline record-keeping as key vulnerabilities that were being exploited.
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