Sindh’s new teacher attendance system faced technical problems on its first day on Monday, with staff at some public schools in Karachi unable to register through the facial recognition-based application and forced to return to the traditional paper system.

The pilot phase of the Facial Recognition Attendance Monitoring and Evaluation System (FRAMES) began across six districts of Sindh — Karachi East, Hyderabad, Naushahro Feroze, Jacobabad, Ghotki and Umerkot. The initial rollout covers 49,565 teaching and non-teaching employees.

At Idara Sharqia Government Girls Secondary School in Jacob Lines, Karachi, several teachers encountered errors while attempting to mark their attendance through the FRAMES application.

Some employees received a message stating, “Server is busy, please wait a few seconds and try again,” while others were told, “School not assigned to user.”

Teachers made repeated attempts to register their attendance, but the problems persisted. With the issue unresolved and attempts to contact the relevant authorities going unanswered, staff eventually recorded their attendance manually.

The first-day glitches have raised concerns about the system’s readiness as Sindh authorities move to replace paper-based attendance with a digital system designed to improve transparency and tackle absenteeism in government schools.

Under FRAMES, teachers and non-teaching staff must record their attendance when they arrive at school and again when they leave. The mobile application uses facial recognition technology to verify an employee’s identity and record the exact attendance time.

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The system has also been designed to operate without an internet connection, allowing staff to record attendance even when connectivity is unavailable. Employees can submit leave applications through the application and access or download their monthly attendance records.

Teachers who spoke to The Express Tribune generally welcomed the initiative, saying a digital teacher attendance system could make attendance monitoring more transparent and help identify employees who receive salaries without regularly reporting to work.

They said the official reporting time was 8:15am and that most teachers arrived before the scheduled time. According to them, a digital record could provide authorities with an immediate picture of punctuality and absenteeism.

Muhammad Khawar, the in-charge of Idara Sharqia Government Girls Secondary School, also viewed the initiative positively. He said the pilot provided teachers with an opportunity to become familiar with new technology and suggested that similar digital systems should be introduced across government institutions.

Teachers and school administrators nevertheless stressed the need to resolve the technical problems before the system is expanded further.

Authorities plan to assess the results of the pilot before introducing FRAMES across Sindh in phases. The experience from the initial districts is expected to help officials identify and address technical and operational issues before a wider rollout.

If successfully implemented, the system could replace manual attendance records across Sindh’s public schools and give education authorities a more centralized way to monitor staff attendance, punctuality and leave.