Medical Colleges To Adopt Face-Based Attendance To Curb Ghost Faculty

The National Medical Commission (NMC) has made a declaration that from May 1, 2025, all medical colleges in India will have to implement a face-based Aadhaar authentication system to mark the attendance of faculty members. This change replaces the existing Biometric Attendance and is meant to address the problem of "ghost faculty" employees who appear only during inspections but are otherwise absent.

Aadhaar Authentication App using face recognition must be installed by faculty members on their smart phones, from either the Google Play Store or Apple App Store. According to the NMC, this mechanism will enhance user experience and accuracy of attendance monitoring.

What's Changing?

- Existing Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS) based on fingerprint devices will be discontinued.

- Faculty members are required to install a face recognition Aadhaar Authentication App Google Play Store and Apple App Store versions available using which they need to mark their attendance through mobile devices.

Why the Change?

- Improve the accuracy and reliability of tracking attendance.

- Verify faculty presence as real, particularly on routine working days and not merely at the time of inspections.

- Prevention of manipulation or fake practices in faculty attendance.

GPS-Based Monitoring

For further fortifying monitoring, medical colleges must provide the GPS coordinates of the important points on campus. Attendance will be accepted only if it is marked within a 100-meter radius of the mentioned points, making it possible to record only from the college premises.

The NMC emphasised that the reform is imperative in eradicating ghost lecturer practices, which have been particularly prevalent in courses such as anatomy, biochemistry, forensic medicine, pharmacology, and microbiology. Through this system, the NMC will be able to directly monitor attendance records, fostering transparency and accountability in medical institutions across the country.