AI-based facial recognition tech for govt school attendance in Karnataka

Bengaluru: From June, when classes open for the 2025-26 academic year, Artificial Intelligence-powered facial recognition technology will be deployed to mark students' attendance at government and aided schools.

Adoption of an AI-based attendance marking system was announced by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in his 2025-26 budget presented recently in the name 'Nirantara'. 

For this purpose, the department of School Education and Literacy is developing a mobile application, which is again AI driven. A tender will be invited to develop the app soon and according to officials of the department, it will be ready to implement from June 2025 at schools.

Dr K V Trilok Chandra, Commissioner for School Education, explained that once the app is ready, it will be installed on every teacher's mobile. "It will be very simple. Multiple photos can be captured at a time. Teachers just have to rotate the phone with the attendance application in the classroom," stated Trilok Chandra.

Teachers can capture attendance of a class of 50 students within a few seconds. The app will mainly mark attendance by capturing facial features like eyes and nose, instead of entire face.

Officials explained that it is easy to install the mobile app developed by the department to capture attendance through facial recognition. Once the app is developed and clear for use, the department will issue a circular asking teachers to install the app on their smartphones and no extra device is required.

This exercise is aimed at getting accurate attendance of students in schools and to identify those who are irregular to school. "The attendance app will be linked to the Students Achievement Tracking System (SATS)," added the commissioner. 

Meanwhile, official sources from the department said this accurate attendance data is necessary to study the various government schemes like, mid-day meal, Ksheera Bhagya, egg distribution, to understand the actual number of beneficiaries. "There is a difference in the number of students enrolled in schools as per SATS data and actual students attending schools. With the AI-generated app, it will be easy to compare the actual attendance with the enrolment," said an official. 

Interestingly, the department had already conducted a pilot study of an AI-powered attendance system at schools in Uttara Kannada district and following the success of the pilot, the department has decided to extend the same to all schools across the state.

The officials said that the privacy of students will be protected and the photographs of the children will not be stored in the system.