AMC school board installs biometric attendance in 456 municipal schools

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation school board in India, has proposed a biometric attendance system in 456 primary schools by June, 2013 as the state and the school board look to address absenteeism.

Currently, the board is seeing a decline in enrollment and an increasing shift towards the privatized alternative, and these new systems are aimed at improving the standard of education and student experience, as well as addressing absenteeism in teachers.

According to a report in The Indian Express, this project is anticipated to cost roughly US $200,000 and will cover 456 municipal schools and 3,600 teachers.

“The proposal is one of the education reform measures to be implemented in the coming academic session,” AMC school board chairman Jagdish Bhavsar said. “It is the board’s initiative irrespective of the state project as it has not yet taken off in the city. The fact of absentee teachers in municipal school cannot be denied. It has to be dealt with psychological as well as technological measures.”

This proposal is a part of a wider objective from the government to install biometric attendance systems in schools, though the project – which was to be implemented by 2012 — is behind schedule.

According to the Express, HCL Infosystems was awarded the contract for this project in 2012 and is still in the process of collecting biometric data to build a database.

Taking an aggressive stance on absenteeism, the Education Department also has planned to make the captured data available on its website.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  education  |  government  |  identification  |  workforce management