'Can't share OTP'; Tamil Nadu teachers meet with sceptic parents on Mission WhatsApp

CHENNAI: "Are you not disguising yourself as a teacher?" Confronted with similar questions from parents, teachers have raised a red flag on the School education department's latest directive to teachers to get parents' contact numbers verified for the Educational Management Information System (EMIS) for sending bulk messages to parents on various updates.

The education department is collaborating with WhatsApp, a messaging platform for sending bulk messages, to share updates and other information with different stakeholders from officials, staff, teachers and parents. However, teachers say they have been facing various difficulties in verifying phone numbers as parents are refusing to share the One Time Password (OTP).

The department has also set a deadline of May 25 for teachers of all government, aided, private and matriculation schools in the State to verify the contact numbers of parents. As a step for verification, an OTP will be sent to the parent's number, after which, the teacher has to call up the parent to procure the OTP and insert it in the EMIS to verify the number.

However, several teachers claim that this process is strenuous as most parents refuse to share the OTP.

"When I called a parent to verify the contact number and asked for OTP, I was promptly denied and told that I was disguising myself as a teacher and there is a public instruction from the government that OTP must not be shared with anyone," said a government teacher of a Chennai school.

Another government teacher pointed out the lack of planning concerning this initiative. "Teachers are being rushed to finish verifying the contact numbers before May 25, while in most cases the parents are either not sharing OTP or the number itself is not reachable. The officials should halt this programme till school reopens to verify the contacts," added the teacher.