Colleges to send parents records of wards’ attendance

The Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) has asked all its affiliated engineering colleges, polytechnics and ITIs to start sending regular attendance updates of students to their parents through a mobile message so that the parents know whether their ward is attending college regularly or not. The move according to sources has been prompted after the drowning incident at Bandra Bandstand in January wherein three friends had bunked college and went for an outing, during which one of them drowned after slipping into the sea.

According to sources in DTE, the affiliated institutions had been asked to provide details of number of students and the infrastructure required to put the system of sending daily attendance record of students to their parents through mobile messages in February. “Most institutions have put together the required information and submitted it with the DTE. The system is expected to be made functional soon,” said the official. The order was issued by Dr S.K. Mahajan, director, DTE.

The official added, “While parents are under the impression that their child is in college, the children are having fun elsewhere. By sending daily attendance updates to the parents it is expected that the parents play a more proactive role in ensuring that their child does not play truant and attends lectures regularly,” said the official.

An official from the Maharashtra State Board of Technical Education added that the office in Bandra (E) had received complaints of many students from polytechnics loitering at Bandstand on a regular basis. “In the backdrop of the drowning incident it is incumbent that the parents know whether their children are attending college or not... By introducing this system we hope it will deter students from bunking lectures and also instill a sense of fear in them that will refrain them from going to places that may pose a threat to their safety,” said the official.