The Medical Council of India has made it mandatory for medical colleges to upload attendance of faculty on their websites, a move aimed at “weeding out ghost faculty”. “The attendance shall be made available on college website in the form of daily attendance dashboard. The council may seek from the medical colleges/institutions the record of the staff’s attendance during or after assessment,” read a statement issued by the MCI. The directive has been issued after many cases surfaced in different medical colleges where a faculty member was mentioned on rolls but not physically present.
The colleges will have to ensure installing biometric attendance system and also to have a daily updated section on their websites about the attendance. As per current practice, manual attendance of faculty members is verified by MCI’s inspection team. The decision is expected to tighten the noose around private medical colleges which have been suspected to be appointing “one-day faculty” only on day when MCI team visits. A similar move is in offing for primary health centers and higher health centers where absenteeism has marred healthcare delivery.