Mumbai: Students of the Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT) at Matunga have raised concerns over the compulsory 75% attendance as an enforcement to attend lectures. Many students found ways to cheat the biometric attendance system to tackle the attendance enforcement.
Students used the biometric attendance machine in different classrooms to mark attendance for their respective classrooms. Also, a handful of students used an adhesive to create fingerprint films which were then used by them to mark attendance for absent friends. The students confessed about this practice of misusing the biometric system under pressure when the management noticed the flaws in the attendance.
The students termed the attendance system as an attempt to snatch away their freedom and an act of compelling them to attend lectures. A student said, “Often some of the lectures do not make sense and some professors are not that approachable and student friendly. The college cannot force us to attend the lectures where the professor is not teaching anything proactively but just reading out a power point presentation.”
The students claimed that the system of faking attendance from another classroom has been going on for a long time. The students have also complained that they have not been given an opportunity to voice their opinion. GD Yadav, Vice-Chancellor of ICT, told the Free Press Journal, “If any student tries to cheat the system there is a remedy for it. Strict disciplinary action will be taken against the students. There is a hierarchy in the institute which will decide the action.”
