`DISHA’ programme to be introduced in all middle,high schools in Jhrkhand

P Mishra

Giridih:  ‘DISHA’, an academic programme run and managed through ‘Web and Mobile Application’ in Giridih district in Jharkhand, has now emerged as a role-model for entire state.

The state government has decided to implement the programme in all the government middle and high schools in the state. The entire system is based on internet and Global Positioning System (GPS). Apart from monitoring the attendance of teachers and students, the authorities concerned including the top district officials would directly be able to observe academic activities and available facilities in particular institutions through GPS. It will also help the concerned district or state authorities to evaluate the system and act accordingly.
This is an initiative of the incumbent Giridih deputy commissioner (DC) Umashankar Singh, who with the help of top class IT experts and academicians from IIT, IIM and other renowned institutions of India thought of an idea to promote and improve the quality of education across the region.
“Actually, we were concerned over deteriorating condition of education especially in the government schools despite huge expenditure and efforts by the government. The main trouble was that neither we were able to check  irregularities by the school authorities nor we could properly track the attendance of the students especially in the rural areas. `Disha’ has played a pivotal role in monitoring the entire system,” said DC Singh adding that although the system was partially implemented in Giridih district  2 – 3 months ago, it came into fullfledged operation with almost 1,299 government middle and high school teachers, apart from thousands of students, started making their attendance
through DISHA App from August 16 in the district.
“Initially, at least 25 – 30 % teachers were found absent from their respective schools without information. But since, the implementation of few such applications, we have found unprecedented increase in the attendance of the teachers as well as the students over the past 2 – 3 months,” the DC said on Saturday.
“Actually, the entire system is based on three major components: mobile application, web application and a ‘Disha Control Room’ located in the confidential office of the district administration. As the entire function is based on GPS, there is no chance of manipulation in the report,” DC Singh said adding that the senior state authorities have
decided to introduce Disha in the entire state.
“As per the record, the initial attendance of the students, which were about 60 – 65% about 3 – 4 months ago, has now reached 87 – 89%. We have also seen a remarkable change in the presence of the teachers even at the schools located in the remote areas,” said Assistant Programme Officer and the Disha coordination, Abhinav Kumar Sinha.
Disha was also appreciated by Jharkhand CM Raghuvar Das during his visit to Giridih on July 18, 2016.