Aiya, it’s getting harder to ponteng school now!
SK Taman Perling 1 made history when it became the first school to use facial recognition scanners to record its students’ attendance.
Photo by Berita Harian Online
According to the New Straits Times, the new system was introduced on the first day of 2020’s school session. The new face recognition system only takes two seconds to scan a person’s face before their personal information such as full name, number and class is stored in the school’s database.
Zamri Abd Wahad, the school headmaster said, 1,034 students, including 937 mainstream students, 47 special education students and 50 preschoolers will be utilizing the scanner.
There’s currently two face scanners installed at the school hall for the students. One face scanner was installed at the office, for its 76 teachers and 12 staff members.
Zamri explained that the face scanners were installed to help reduce teachers' workloads. “The aim was to make it easier for teachers to take attendance. They no longer have to do it manually, which reduces teacher’s workload,” he said.
Photo by GPS Bestari
The students’ data will be stored in the system before it is copied and transferred to the Education Ministry’s database through the Students Database application.
According to Bernama, Zamri hopes that the system could be expanded for visitors’ registration to increase the school’s security.
The cost of the software, as well as the installation and maintenance of the system, was donated to the school by an NGO, at the cost of RM50,000.
We used to only see this sort of thing in futuristic movies – can’t believe they are now using it in schools!
By: Aishah Akashah Ahadiat
