Karnataka govt. orders ‘Mobile-based AI Driven Facial Recognition Attendance System’ in all govt. and aided schools

The government ordered implementation of ‘Mobile-based Artificial Intelligence (AI) Driven Facial Recognition Attendance System’ in all its schools and aided institutions across the State, on Saturday.

“This is expected to provide accurate daily attendance records of schoolchildren, identify absentees, and ensure transparency in the implementation of student-focused programmes,” the order said.

The government has developed a separate mobile application for this system and has included all information of students in the Students Achievement Tracking System.

This attendance system will be implemented from the academic year 2025-26. The software application and data of this project will be hosted at Karnataka State Date Centre, Vikasa Soudha, soon, according to the order.

School coverage

A total of 52,686 schools will be covered under this programme, including 46,460 government and 6,226 aided ones and the attendance of a total of 52,55,738 students can be monitored through it.

The number of students in government schools is estimated at 40,74,525 and those in aided schools at 11,81,213.

This system will identify the facial data of students in real time and use an Advanced Vector-Based Facial Recognition Engine. The captured image of the student will be encrypted into a unique ID through the mobile application and the image cannot be reverse-engineered to reconstruct the captured image, ensuring maximum privacy and security.

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

To assess its effectiveness, the Department of School Education and Literacy conducted a pilot project in schools of Uttara Kannada district in 2024. After its success, the department decided to extend the system across the State.

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

Benefits

“The attendance of students at all levels can be obtained in a short time and accuracy in it is achieved. The deficiencies in the current attendance record system can be corrected and accurate attendance can be obtained on a daily basis. Exceptional deficiency in attendance of any school can be monitored on a daily basis. Accurate information is available for the implementation of various incentive schemes. This can prevent unnecessary or excess allocation of funds. Having an accurate school attendance report on a daily basis helps in planning to improve the educational system in the respective schools,” the order read.