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Int J Appl Basic Med Res
Int J Appl Basic Med Res
IJABMR
Int J App Basic Med Res
International Journal of Applied and Basic Medical Research
2229-516X
2248-9606
Wolters Kluwer - Medknow India

IJABMR-14-147
10.4103/ijabmr.ijabmr_361_24
Editorial
Calculation of Attendance of Faculty Working in Indian Medical Colleges: Looking for the Denominator
Mahajan Rajiv
Department of Pharmacology, Adesh Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Bathinda, Punjab, India
Address for correspondence: Dr. Rajiv Mahajan, Department of Pharmacology, Adesh Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Bathinda - 151 001, Punjab, India. E-mail: drrajivmahajan01@gmail.com
Jul-Sep 2024
24 8 2024
14 3 147150
29 7 2024
07 8 2024
08 8 2024
Copyright: © 2024 International Journal of Applied and Basic Medical Research
2024
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ This is an open access journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.
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pmcIntroduction

The attendance criteria for various stakeholders, be it trainers or trainees, have suddenly assumed sacrosanct status in India, as reflected in regulations/circulars released by the National Medical Commission (NMC) from time to time. The “Guidelines for Undergraduate Courses under Establishment of New Medical Institutions, Starting of New Medical Courses, Increase of Seats for Existing Courses and Assessment and Rating Regulations, 2023 (in short UG-MSR 2023)” of NMC very clearly dictates that all medical institutes must install “Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS)” and it must be linked to the command-and-control center of NMC.[1]

The process of installation of AEBAS in medical colleges and its linking with the control-and-command center of NMC started in August 2022.[2] As a perfect demonstration of hand-holding, NMC issued many notices, circulars, guidelines, and manuals for the next 5–6 months and guided colleges through WhatsApp group so as to enable the medical colleges to install the required system, upload faculty data and register faculty members on the system, and link the system to NMC control-and-command system.[345] Once the system was established, NMC continued with the monitoring and issued guidelines/instructions from time to time for its smooth working, like - guidelines for activation of Face Enabled AEBAS Machine,[6] instructions regarding transfer of AEBAS attendance ID,[78] circular regarding dedicated E-mails for queries related to AEBAS,[9] and an advisory regarding various error codes and activation of shift-option,[10] to name a few.

To begin with, NMC instructed the colleges to direct faculty members to self-register on the AEBAS portal,[2] and later made it mandatory for the colleges to register faculty, demonstrators, tutors, and senior residents in the AEBAS portal.[4] However, the stakeholders (trainers and trainees) who are required to mark their daily attendance as per UG-MSR 2023 through the AEBAS now include students also [Box 1]. NMC has further clarified vide 10th question of the “Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for UG-MSR 2023” document that “it is mandatory for every faculty and every student of all Medical Colleges/Institutions and hospitals to mark their attendance through AEBAS only.”[11]

Box 1 Category of trainers and trainees required to mark attendance through Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System as per undergraduate minimum standards regulations 2023

All faculty members	
All residents (one can assume that it includes senior as well as junior residents)	
Supporting staff (one can assume that it includes nursing staff, technicians, and office assistants)	
All students (one can assume that it includes undergraduate students, interns as well as postgraduate students)	

Although the NMC, till date, has not posed any query to medical colleges regarding AEBAS attendance of students and staff, but considering the mandate given by the UG-MSR 2023, the NMC is expected to raise queries to the medical colleges soon. Currently, NMC’s Biometric Attendance System Dashboard can be accessed from the URL-https://central.nmcindia.ac.in/ and websites of AEBAS of individual institutes can be accessed from URL-https://central.nmcindia.ac.in/reports/organization. Besides the requirement of installing AEBAS, NMC has issued guidelines regarding the maintenance of minimum cutoff attendance for undergraduate (UG) students, interns, postgraduate (PG) students, senior residents, and faculty members. These minimum attendance requirements, as fixed by NMC for various classes of trainers and trainees, are the focus of this editorial.

Attendance Requirements for Undergraduate Students

The “Competency-Based Medical Education (CBME) Curriculum Guidelines, 2023” have distinctly notified the attendance criteria for UG students to appear in any subject, in any phase.[12] Students need a minimum of 75% attendance in theory and 80% attendance in practical/clinical to fulfill one of the eligibility criteria to appear in that subject. If a subject is taught in more than one phase (such as community medicine etc.), the criteria of 75% attendance in theory and 80% in practical/clinical must be fulfilled in each phase of instruction of that subject. For a paper comprising allied subjects, namely General Medicine and Allied and General Surgery and Allied, the 75% and 80% criteria must be fulfilled in allied subjects also, in order to be eligible to appear for the paper of General Surgery and General Medicine. If a student fails to fulfill 75% attendance in theory and/or 80% attendance in practical/clinical criteria in any subject, he/she is not only debarred from appearing in the regular examination, but also in the supplementary examination in that particular subject.[13]

As is clear from above guidelines, the attendance will be counted for one full phase, whether the subject is taught for one phase or over multiple phases. For subjects taught over multiple phases, the total attendance will be cumulative of each phase attendance. Thus, the unit for calculation of denominator, for further calculating the percentage attendance of UG students, is “one full phase of training.” Denominator will be the total theory or practical classes/sessions held during that phase, in a particular subject.

Attendance Requirements for Interns

The “NMC Compulsory Rotating Medical Internship (CRMI) Regulations, 2021” implicitly define the attendance criteria for interns for satisfactory completion of the internship.[14] As per these regulations, an intern is entitled to a maximum of 15 leaves in total duration of internship of 1 year/12 months (amounting to 365 or 366 days, as the case may be). Internship is extended by the same number of days, in case there is any kind of leave beyond this maximum permissible limit of 15 days, in the department or specialty where such deficiency is documented. However, the entire period of 15 days of leave cannot be availed during short postings of 1–2 weeks. CRMI 2021 also specifically entitles interns for the maternity/paternity leave as per existing norms of the central/state government (as applicable), but the period of internship is extended if there is any leave beyond the maximum permissible limit of 15 leaves.

The above discussion implies that the attendance will be counted for the entire period of internship, department-wise/specialty-wise. Thus, the unit for calculation of denominator/period for interns for calculation of attendance is “one full year of internship training.”

Attendance Requirements for Postgraduate Students

The “Post-Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2023 (PGMER-2023)” has explicitly defined the leave and attendance criteria for PG students.[15] PG students are entitled to 20 casual leaves per year of training, besides one weekly off. They are also entitled for 5 days of paid academic leave per year, and if they avail-of these academic leaves, they are considered on duty.[16] However, for appearing in the examination, PG students need to have 80% attendance over their 3 years degree course/2 years diploma courses. PGMER 2023 also specifically entitles the PG students to maternity/paternity leave as per existing government rules, but any leave taken beyond the permissible limit of 20 leaves per year (after deducting weekly off) will lead to the extension of their term by the same number of days. However, PG students can appear in regular examinations, if the attendance is at least 80% over the entire duration of the course.

As is clear from the above guidelines, the attendance for PG students will be counted for the entire duration of the course. Thus, the unit for calculation of denominator, for further calculating the percentage attendance of PG students is “entire duration of the training.” FAQs document on PGMER-2023 has specified this denominator to be 939 days for 3 years degree courses and 730 days for 2 years diploma courses.[16]

Attendance Requirements for Faculty

It is mandatory for faculty members and resident doctors to have 75% attendance on all working days (excluding vacations).[111] As per regulations, faculty members are entitled to sick leave or leave due to emergencies. The FAQs document on UG-MSR 2023 has further enhanced the scope of leave entitlement of faculty members by including the clause of providing attendance in parent institutes for faculty development programs or any NMC assessment or any medical education activity.[11] However, the permitted number of days for such vacations/sick leave/emergency leave has not been specified. Probably, it has been left to interpretation-as per central/state government rules. Further, the regulations do not specify if the faculty members are entitled to maternity/paternity leaves.

Anyhow, the current focus is on the “unit of calculation of denominator”– the duration over which the percentage attendance shall be counted. Surprisingly, the duration over which this 75% attendance for faculty shall be counted has not been specified in any of the published documents by NMC, available in the public domain. No one can state with surety, if the 75% attendance shall be counted over “one academic year” or over “one calendar year,” or “over a quarter-year.” It is worth mentioning here that as per a public notice uploaded on the NMC website on December 18, 2023, notices were issued to the colleges for deficiency of attendance of the faculty by counting the attendance from AEBAS over just 3 months – from June 19, 2023, to September 19, 2023.[17] Although no further notice in this regard is available on the public forum, many colleges have received deficiency notices from NMC after counting the attendance from AEBAS for 2–3 months.

Unit of Calculation

As evident from the above discussion, the “unit of calculation of denominator for computing attendance,” or in other words, the “duration over which attendance will be computed,” is fixed for UG and PG students and interns but not for faculty members [Table 1].

Table 1 Overview of attendance criteria for various stakeholders

Stakeholder	Minimum required attendance	Unit of calculation of denominator*	
UG students	Theory - 75% Practical/clinical - 80%	One full phase of training	
Interns	350 days (351 in leap year)	1 year/12 months	
PG students	80%	Entire course of training (3 years for degree/2 years for diploma)	
Faculty	75%	Not specified (notices issued after counting attendance over 2–3 months duration)	
*Duration over which minimum attendance is counted. UG: Undergraduate; PG: Postgraduate

It is worth mentioning that now the attendance of the faculty is being counted from AEBAS by the NMC, and NMC has asked the colleges to upload holidays on the portal in advance and also to “add leave” and “add tour” modules for any faculty or resident in advance, and not post-facto.[18] Reflecting its concerns, NMC has also recently warned the faculty members about the reported incidences of impersonation for marking AEBAS attendance using fake finger prints.[19]

It is obvious that the 75% attendance criteria cannot be ignored by faculty. But in the absence of any clarity about the duration over which such minimum attendance shall be calculated, the faculty members are in a state of jittery. Any deficiency pointed out by the NMC for any particular faculty member can adversely affect his/her job prospectus, particularly in private medical colleges. At the same time, faculty members have families too; they have family and social obligations as well and have to plan things accordingly. Moreover, their entitlement to maternity/paternity leave must be ensured.

It is expected that NMC will soon fix the duration over which the attendance of the faculty is computed from the data available on the AEBAS portal, which is recommended to be either “one full calendar year” or “one full academic year.” Such “1 year duration” will take care of the annual holidays, permitted casual leaves, and vacations. It is further recommended that the denominator in days be fixed over this entire duration of 1 year, after deducting the Sundays, permissible leave, and vacation period, as has been done for PG students in FAQs on PGMER 2023.[16] Considering 52 Sundays and on an average of 13 days of Gazetted holidays (all nonworking days), one is left with 300 working days per annum; and 75% of this is 225 days. Thus, in a more simplified form, faculty should be asked to maintain attendance for 225 days in a calendar year after availing all types of leave; though separate consideration must be given in case faculty members avail maternity/paternity leave. This will remove the ambiguity and will make the system more transparent.
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1 National Medical Commission –Undergraduate Medical Education Board Guidelines for Undergraduate Courses under Establishment of New Medical Institutions, Starting of New Medical Courses, Increase of Seats for Existing Courses &Assessment and Rating Regulations 2023 Available from:https://www.nmc.org.in/MCIRest/open/getDocument?path=/Documents/Public/Portal/LatestNews/18-8-2023.pdf Last accessed on 2024 Jul 25
2 National Medical Commission Implementation of NIC Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS), Hospital Management System (HMS) in All Medical Colleges and Connecting CCTV Feed to Command and Control Center at NMC Available from:https://www.nmc.org.in/MCIRest/open/getDocument?path=/Documents/Public/Portal/LatestNews/1.%20Commission%20letter%20dt%2001.08.2022%20(1)_compressed.pdf Last accessed on 2024 Jul 25
3 National Medical Commission Implementation of NIC Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS), Hospital Management System ([IMS) in All Medical Colleges and Connecting CCTV Feed to Command and Controls Center at NMC Available from:https://www.nmc.org.in/MCIRest/open/getDocument?path=/Documents/Public/Portal/LatestNews/Commission%20letter%20dated%2012.082022.pdf Last accessed on 2024 Jul 25
4 National Medical Commission Guidelines for Implementation of Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System in Medical Colleges –Regarding Available from:https://www.nmc.org.in/MCIRest/open/getDocument?path=/Documents/Public/Portal/LatestNews/19.10.2022.pdf Last accessed on 2024 Jul 25
5 National Medical Commission Implementation of NIC Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS), Hospital Management System ([IMS) in All Medical Colleges and Connecting CCTV Feed to Command and Controls Center at NMC –Regarding Available from:https://www.nmc.org.in/MCIRest/open/getDocument?path=/Documents/Public/Portal/LatestNews/AEBAS%20latest%20Notice.pdf Last accessed on 2024 Jul 25
6 National Medical Commission Implementation of Aadhar Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS) in All Medical Colleges –Guidelines for Activation of Face Enabled AEBAS Machine Available from:https://www.nmc.org.in/MCIRest/open/getDocument?path=/Documents/Public/Portal/LatestNews/Aebas%20New%20Notice.pdf Last accessed on 2024 Jul 25
7 National Medical Commission Transfer of AEBAS Attendance ID –Regarding Available from:https://www.nmc.org.in/MCIRest/open/getDocument?path=/Documents/Public/Portal/LatestNews/58%20Letter%20dtd%2006-03-2023.pdf Last accessed on 2024 Jul 25
8 National Medical Commission Advisory in Connection to Implementation of Various Aspects of AEBAS Module –Regarding Available from:https://www.nmc.org.in/MCIRest/open/getDocument?path=/Documents/Public/Portal/LatestNews/Adivsory%20in%20connection%20to%20implementatin%20of%20AEBAS%20module.pdf Last accessed on 2024 Jul 25
9 National Medical Commission Circular –Dedicated E-mail IDs for Submission of Queries Related to AEBAS, HMIS and CCTV Cameras Installed in Medical Colleges/Institutions by National Medical Commission Available from:https://www.nmc.org.in/MCIRest/open/getDocument?path=/Documents/Public/Portal/LatestNews/document%20 (42).pdf Last accessed on 2024 Jul 25
10 National Medical Commission Advisory –Clarifications/Directions Regarding Implementation of Adhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS) in All Government and Private Medical Colleges Available from:https://www.nmc.org.in/MCIRest/open/getDocument?path=/Documents/Public/Portal/LatestNews/document%20-%202024-01-25T132743.724.pdf Last accessed on 2024 Jul 25
11 National Medical Commission Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on UG-MSR 2023 Available from:https://www.nmc.org.in/MCIRest/open/getDocument?path=/Documents/Public/Portal/LatestNews/FAQ%20for%20MSR.pdf Last accessed on 2024 Jul 25
12 National Medical Commission Competency Based Medical Education (CBME) Curriculum Guidelines 2023 Available from:https://www.nmc.org.in/MCIRest/open/getDocument?path=/Documents/Public/Portal/LatestNews/CBME%201.pdf Last accessed on 2024 Jul 26
13 National Medical Commission Frequently Asked Questions Related to CBME Course Curriculum Available from:https://www.nmc.org.in/MCIRest/open/getDocument?path=/Documents/Public/Portal/LatestNews/FAQ%20for%20CBME.pdf Last accessed on 2024 Jul 26
14 National Medical Commission National Medical Commission (Compulsory Rotating Medical Internship) Regulations 2021 Available from:https://www.nmc.org.in/MCIRest/open/getDocument?path=/Documents/Public/Portal/LatestNews/231280.pdf Last accessed on 2024 Jul 26
15 National Medical Commission Post-Graduate Medical Education Regulations 2023 Available from:https://www.nmc.org.in/MCIRest/open/getDocument?path=/Documents/Public/Portal/LatestNews/PGMER%202023.pdf Last accessed on 2024 Jul 26
16 National Medical Commission Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on Post-Graduate Medical Education Regulations-2023 Available from:https://www.nmc.org.in/MCIRest/open/getDocument?path=/Documents/Public/Portal/LatestNews/FAQs%20on%20PGMER-2023.pdf Last accessed on 2024 Jul 26
17 National Medical Commission Details of Attendance of Faculties Observed Through Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS) in Respect of the Colleges Applied for Increase of Seats/Renewal of Permissions/Recognition of Degree/Continuation of Recognition for MBBS Available from:https://www.nmc.org.in/MCIRest/open/getDocument?path=/Documents/Public/Portal/LatestNews/document%20(76).pdf Last accessed on 2024 Jul 26
18 National Medical Commission AEBAS Attendance Marking –Advance Declaration of Holidays to the Medical Colleges in the Module Available from:https://www.nmc.org.in/MCIRest/open/getDocument?path=/Documents/Public/Portal/LatestNews/Public%20Notice%20for%20Advance%20declaration%20of%20holidays%20on%20AEBAS%20.pdf Last accessed on 2024 Jul 26
19 National Medical Commission Impersonation of Attendances in AEBAS in Medical Colleges/Institutions Available from:https://www.nmc.org.in/MCIRest/open/getDocument?path=/Documents/Public/Portal/LatestNews/document-64.pdf Last accessed on 2024 Jul 26
