A headmaster in the Baghaichhari upazila of Rangamati, Mohammad Abu Taher, climbed a mango tree to submit his online attendance under a new government rule, according to reports. He climbed the tree to find a network connection, the reports said.
The incident took place Monday at Pakujjochhari Government Primary School in Rupkari union of the upazila. A photograph of the scene spread on social media.
The government recently launched an online attendance system for primary school teachers across the country, effective from June 15. Under the rule, teachers must reach school by 9 a.m. each day, photograph the attendance register and send it via WhatsApp to the upazila primary education officer. Abu Taher ran into trouble on the very first day.
Abu Taher went to mark his online attendance that day but found no network. Risking his safety, he was forced to climb a mango tree on a nearby hilltop in search of a signal and stand on a branch. He was eventually able to mark his attendance online after getting some connection.
Abu Taher said he faced serious difficulty trying to submit his attendance under the new rule. His school sits several hundred feet below a hill, he said. That morning he first tried to send the photograph of the register from the roof but found no signal. He then tried from the hilltop, again without success. Finally he was forced to climb the branch of a nearby mango tree, where he got some signal and was able to send the photograph via WhatsApp to the Baghaichhari upazila education officer, he said.
He said he had been forced to risk climbing the tree to save his job. “If I lose my job, my family will face a difficult situation,” he said.
Sanchayan Chakma, the acting upazila primary education officer, said Baghaichhari upazila has 116 government primary schools. Online attendance was received from 88 of them on the first day, while the attendance of 83 teachers at 28 schools was not received, he said.
Najir Ahmed Talukder, president of the district primary headmasters’ association, said teachers in the plains could submit online attendance easily but it was very difficult in remote hill areas. Mobile networks had not yet reached many parts of Rangamati district, he said, and many areas still lacked electricity. Even many areas of the district town had no network, he said, and he asked that the matter be given special consideration for hill areas.
According to the district primary education office, attendance was received from 538 of the district’s 708 schools on the first day, June 15. The remaining 170 schools were outside mobile network coverage, so their online attendance was not received.
Kafil Uddin, the district primary education officer, said information was being collected through WhatsApp groups for now, as directed. Information was coming from areas within network coverage, and data was being gathered by SMS where possible, he said. A list of the remaining areas would be sent to Dhaka, and action would be taken according to further instructions, he said.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report