Teachers cry foul over MStar app, seek relief from attendance burden

The online attendance system being implemented in government schools through the MStar e-Punjab app is becoming a major source of frustration for teachers, while also reducing the valuable time meant for teaching students. Although the system is intended to improve transparency and accountability in schools, teachers on the ground are facing multiple technical and administrative challenges.

Democratic Teachers Front (DTF) Punjab state joint secretary Mukesh Kumar and district president Sukhdev Singh Dansiwal said the MStar e-Punjab app has been developed by the Education Department in collaboration with a private company, Hitachi MGRM Net Limited. They said marking daily attendance within the stipulated time has become a serious challenge for teachers.

They added that during admission periods, teachers are engaged in enrolling students, yet the higher authorities continue to send repeated messages to school heads demanding attendance updates. In some cases, even teachers attending seminars are being pressured to submit student attendance reports.

Teachers said due to simultaneous use, the server often becomes overloaded, preventing attendance from being marked on time, causing mental stress. In many cases, teachers who have already marked attendance are later shown as absent due to system errors, forcing them to re-mark attendance. They also highlighted that poor internet connectivity in rural areas further worsens the situation.

The teacher leaders further stated that the Education Department frequently issues instructions to install multiple apps such as e-Punjab, iHRMS, DIKSHA, Punjab EduCare, and others along with daily requirements to fill Google Sheets for data collection. This growing reliance on digital data entry has shifted teachers away from their core responsibility of teaching, effectively turning them into data entry operators, ultimately harming students’ learning.

They also pointed out that the long-established e-Punjab portal, with which teachers were well acquainted, is being phased out.

The leaders said that while DTF supports the use of technology, its unplanned implementation is distancing teachers from classrooms. They demanded that the department should stop experimental policies, appoint dedicated data entry operators in schools, and allow teachers to focus on teaching by reducing app-based and data reporting burdens.