Article 5 by MYLENE JOY L. MOLINA School Head

1. No More Tricks in Biometrics
Mylene Joy Lacsao Molina
School Head
In DepEd Malaybalay City, Superintendent Rebonfamil R. Baguio issued a memorandum requiring all
schools within the division to purchase and use the biometric system in the attendance of teachers starting
February, 2019. And this, like any change in the system, caused quite a commotion.
Teachers from neighboring Region XI, who have been using the biometrics since 2013, also felt the
same way in the first few months of the new system. They were so confused and even went on to plea from
DepEd Region XI office to scrap the use of the biometrics scanner. DepEd RO however junked their petition
citing that “the fingerprint biometrics scanner provided accurate information on the log-in and out of teachers.”
Most teachers would want to stop the use of biometrics because they think they have incurred salary
deductions on days their DTR was marked absent or late. Every minute of late log-in is equivalent to around
P 2.00. Also, teachers have worries when there is sudden power interruption thinking the machine might
malfunction. To end this fear, principals have also purchased the UPS (uninterruptible power supply), and
they are also required to certify that brownout indeed occurred. Another reason, teachers need to fall in long
queues four times daily. By the time a teacher reaches the device to log-in, he or she is already a minute or
two late. They said they could have instead used this time of queuing and waiting in the office for at least 15
minutes in checking papers or making lesson plans. Worst case scenario is during lunch breaks when all the
teachers would meet, with everyone exhausted from their classes, and everybody is starving for lunch. Good
for small schools with only about 10-20employees. What about big schools with more than a hundred faculty?
One more thing that caused considerable chaos is the case of double shifting in big schools with half
of teachers logging in at different time and the other half at another time, plus the regular schedule of teachers.
This leads to constant changing of log-in schedule with teachers murmuring around due to confusion. It’s
either the principal will purchase additional biometrics machine or assign an expert programmer. I suggest
they benchmark on bigger schools like Bukidnon National High School and follow how they did their log-in
schedules for teachers in the shifting program.
Now here’s the bigger issue against the use of biometrics. Some teachers are actually afraid of their
“whereabouts” being tracked by the biometrics machine. No, the machine has no feature of individually
tracking and spying on the teachers. Because there is an accurate machine that records the coming in and out
of teachers, some teachers cannot therefore make excuses or alibis of getting out the school premises. A
number of teachers are seen roaming and loafing around the city on school time transacting business at the
banks, Pera-Padala centers, colleges, and café. Otherwise, they need to secure a pass form from the school
head. And they better be back as soon as possible before the log-in time.
Bravo for biometrics! We can’t get away with the tricks. This is actually a matter of honesty. The use
of biometrics is in adherence to Project WATCH (We Advocate Time Consciousness and Honesty). Gone are
the days of bundy clocks, log books, and self-made DTR where we can tamper the entries in our favor.