TNSED app for marking teachers, students attendance starting Jan 1

CHENNAI: For the convenience of marking attendance for teachers, non-teaching staff and students, the Tamil Nadu School Education Department (TNSED) has developed an exclusive mobile application named TNSED Attendance and will be effective from January 1.

So far, the attendance of teachers and others in all government and aided schools in the State were being uploaded on the TNSED Schools app. However, the department decided to upgrade the new and separate app, after the suggestions from teachers.

"Based on the suggestions received from the teachers to upload the attendance in a simple way, an application called TNSED Attendance has been developed. Additionally, the app has proved beneficial and effortless during the trail run for 2 months in Thanjavur district, "noted a circular from the department.

With the introduction of this new app, the department has informed teachers that the old system of attendance module will be disabled. And, for better understanding of the new function, a user manual has also been distributed among teachers.

Subsequently, the Chief Education Officers (CEOs) have been directed to instruct all the school principals to upload the attendance records of teachers and students in the new TNSED Attendance app from January 1, following all the procedures.

Furthermore, as the attendance app is by default set as 'schools working' thus enabling teachers to mark attendance, the teachers will have to manually make changes if the schools are closed, functioning half-day or announced as holiday by the government.

Importantly, unlike the previous app, the staff (teachers and non-teaching staff) will be marked for two sessions – forenoon and afternoon. In the list of options to mark the attendance, 'late' and 'part-time no duty' option has been removed.

"Before this marking attendance has been a tedious and time consuming process. However, glad that our suggestions were taken and the new app was introduced. As we usually sign in a register while leaving the school in the evening, now that too has been digitised," said a Chennai school teacher.

Attendance system is one of the key models for the education department as it helps in tracking students drop outs, potential drops and providing government subsidies to students as per the new announcement.