The Maharashtra School Education Department is set to phase out traditional physical attendance registers and introduce a chatbot-based system for recording student presence. Under this initiative, teachers will soon be able to mark attendance digitally, streamlining the process and improving efficiency.

Currently, teachers have to manually prepare the annual register with sections for months and dates. They have to write down students’ names as per their role numbers and mark them as present or absent in these physical registers on a daily basis and then tally it all at the month’s end, to maintain the attendance record. “This process is time-consuming and requires extensive record-keeping. Now, under the Vidya Samiksha Kendra initiative, a chatbot will facilitate real-time attendance tracking through a live dashboard,” said Sachindra Pratap Singh, state education commissioner.