AI-enabled facial recognition system to monitor student attendance in Govt. schools

The attendance of students in all government and aided schools in the State will be monitored by Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled facial recognition system from the academic year 2025-26.

This is expected to provide accurate daily attendance records of school children, identify absentees, and ensure transparency in the implementation of student-focused programmes.

The government has developed a separate mobile application and has included all the information of students in the Students Achievement Tracking System (SATS).

“Quality education is possible only when all students attend school regularly. Absenteeism negatively impacts the learning process. According to the rules, no student can be detained up to class 9, but absenteeism can lead to learning gaps, which eventually affect SSLC exam results,” a source explained.

He added that the department had observed a discrepancy between the number of students registered in the SATS and the actual number of students attending school, which needs to be addressed.

Facial recognition attendance system will also help monitor the number of students benefiting from government schemes such as the distribution of eggs, mid-day meals, shoes, and socks.

To assess its effectiveness, the Department of School Education and Literacy (DSEL) had conducted a pilot project in the schools of Uttara Kannada district. After the successof the pilot project, the department has decided to extended this system across the State.

Recently, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, in his 16^th State Budget, announced that the attendance of children will be monitored under ‘Nirantara’ programme based on Face Recognition Technology.

Teachers have to install the app on their smartphones. . As all the information of the students in the SATS has already been included in the app, the facial features will be captured and adopted to the app.

Speaking to The Hindu, K.V. Trilok Chandra, Commissioner, of Public Instruction, said, “ In the facial recognition attendance system, we have given importance to protecting the data and privacy of the students. Photos of the children will not be captured and stored. Instead, the software has been developed in such a way that the attendance of children is confirmed by recognizing the features on the face of the children, i.e., the eyes, nose, and other parts. Therefore, the children’s data will not be breached.”

He further said, that with this technology, the facial features of all the students in the group can be captured at once. “For example, if there are 50 students in a group, everyone’s facial features will be captured in just 5 seconds. So, there is no need to take individual photos of each student every time. Teachers can complete all these processes in a couple of minutes as soon as schools start. This will help in school management and improving the attendance of children,” he explained.