R480m for biometric clock-in system

The department of basic education has said it will spend almost half a billion rand to ensure that public school teachers are at work.

Added by Editor on 14 February 2013.
Saved under News
Tags:

fingerprint-640

The department of basic education plans to spend R480m on a biometric clocking-in system to ensure that teachers are at work, a newspaper report said on Wednesday.

The system, which could be introduced at about 24 000 public schools, would ensure teachers arrived on time for work and spent the requisite number of hours on the job, basic education minister Angie Motshekga said.

She announced the plan last week, during a visit to the Pholoshong Primary School in KwaZulu-Natal.

Her spokesman, Panyaza Lesufi, told Beeld newspaper that the old system, where teachers simply signed in, was no longer effective.

“We’ve had incidents where teachers have signed in on behalf of others or don’t show up for work, then say they forgot to sign. Furthermore, sending the old register from the school to the department’s offices is a hassle.”

With the biometric system, teachers’ fingerprints would be scanned, and the data connected to other systems, such as the public service salary system. Lesufi said it would deduct money from teachers’ salaries if they did not supply a valid reason for their absenteeism.

Chris Klopper, chief executive of the SA Teachers’ Union, labelled the project an attempt to treat the “symptoms of a diseased education system, rather than the causes”.  — Sapa

Share this article

  • Goobacks

    Why can’t the principles of the schools report these absent teachers to the department and have them fired, like any other job?

    Instead of installing an expensive system, why not create incentives for teachers to be at work, like providing them with toilets, teaching facilities, textbooks, maintained classrooms and maybe even a few extra Rands a month? This would also help to improve the quality of the teaching.

  • Marcan

    SA is ranked 132th out of 144 nations in primary education, according WEF report. Finger print clock-in systems will not make a big difference.

  • Greg Mahlknecht

    While it’s obvious that improving teaching conditions and environment is the best long-term solution, at R20,000 per school I think this is an excellent short-term initiative. I worked on a similar project a few years ago, and for that price it should be a unit that can send the info back to a central place via GSM, and assuming that is run correctly (a big assumption, I know), this could be a good case of technology delivering a great solution.

    You make a good point of the principles doing this work, but with this kind of problem rampant, they’re obviously part of the problem. This system will also be able to weed out the bad principles. This kind of system has the ability to pay for itself in a matter of weeks or months.

  • David

    Well i hope that the system is as quick to pay for all the extra hours as it will be to dock pay when one leaves a bit early.

  • Davebee

    Well I have to ask my friend who sent me a mail off this blog asking why I wasn’t ‘helping Zuma’ make this a better country. How in Gods name can this type of initiative be any indication that there is any country left to even be ‘helped’?
    The country has become totally defunct under the ANC, it’s a write off. When I went to school, teaching was a very respected profession and when you finally left school you carried a teachers or headmasters testimonial with you as a matter of pride!
    Under the present cadre teachers ANC regime I doubt that one would actually find a teacher (if they turned up at their work place) actually able to write a legible reference.
    In closing my friend, I’m not a proud South African, I’m an ashamed South African and even more so after hearing what passes for a president mumbling his way through the speech that was written for him to read last night.

  • Mbazo Mabuza

    I very much doubt the problem is attendance. To me the problem is what they do when they get there!. It’s normal for them to spend 60% of their time in the “staff room” discussing other issues instead of teaching. So what the department should consider is firstly look at the poor performing schools and ascertain what the key issue is i.e. is it teacher absenteeism or is the teachers lacking the necessary teaching knowledge.

  • http://www.clickclickboom.co.za Alan Benington

    Dont know if I really want to send my kids to schools that require “systems” to get the teachers to pitch up. Can you imagine the quality of learning that takes place in these institutions?

  • Greg Mahlknecht

    I’m sure the parents who send their children to these schools would like nothing more than to be able to send them to a better school, but sadly that’s not an option they have. It’s really unfortunate how they keep voting the people into power that keep them in that situation. Why don’t more people realise that when you vote, you’re lending the party your vote for a few years, you aren’t making a lifelong commitment to supporting them no matter what. It’s not unlike fanboyism in the tech world.

  • http://www.clickclickboom.co.za Alan Benington

    Too true. I’m blessed to have the choice. I have a son who got an excellent education in science and the arts from “model-c” schools (despite the education department). I fear his siblings will not get the same. Seems like the ANC have a vested interest in ignorance.

  • Greg Mahlknecht

    There’s no reason that you can’t do both. R500mil is a drop in the ocean, you really can’t overspend on education, provided you get results. I think making sure all the teachers are actually there is as good a place as any to start.

Why TechCentral?

We know that as a prospective advertiser, you are spoilt for choice. Our job is to demonstrate why TechCentral delivers the best return for your advertising spend.

TechCentral is South Africa’s online technology news leader. We don’t say that lightly. We believe we produce the country’s best and most insightful online tech news aimed at industry professionals and those interested in the fast-changing world of technology.

We provide news, reviews and comment, without fear or favour, that is of direct relevance to our fast-expanding audience. Proportionately, we provide the largest local audience of all technology-focused online publishers.

We do not constantly regurgitate press releases to draw in search engine traffic — we believe websites that do so are doing their readers and advertisers a disservice. Nor do we sell “editorial features”, offer advertising “press offices” or rely on online bulletin-board forums of questionable value to advertisers to bolster our traffic.

TechCentral, which is edited and written by award-winning South African journalists, cares about delivering top-quality content to draw in the business and consumer readers that are of most interest to technology advertisers.

We’d like the opportunity to demonstrate the value of directing a portion of your advertising budget to TechCentral, whether your company is in the technology field or not. Numerous opportunities exist for companies interested in reaching our audience of key decision-makers in South Africa’s dynamic information and communications technology sector. We offer packages that will deliver among the best returns on investment available in the online technology news space.

For more information about advertising opportunities, and how your organisation can benefit by publicising itself on TechCentral, please call us on 011-792-0449 during office hours. Or send us an e-mail and ask for our latest rate card and brochure.