Indian state launches biometric online attendance system in 40.000 schools

The Gujarat government announced the launch of a facial recognition biometric system across 40.000 primary schools, with the aim to curb absenteeism. According to the Hindu, the State Education Department will distribute tablets equipped with geo-tagging and biometrics software to all schools in the next two months, and from November onward, attendance of students in all government schools will be integrated into the system. This initiative generated serious concerns from a section of teachers, who have protested against the introduction of the facial recognition-based attendance system. The Education Department denied that data from the online attendance system will be shared or given access to any agency or companies.