Chinese Schools Monitor Students with GPS Tracking ‘Smart Uniforms’
– By Joseph Edun, ABH Press
Schools in Southwest China Guizhou Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region are now making use of new “smart uniforms” that track students’ whereabouts with embedded computer chips in a move to curb truancy and boost students attendance.
The uniforms which are developed by a local firm Guizhou Guanyu Technology Company, are equipped with GPS devices which monitor students’ location and can record their exit and entry into school, according to the tech firm behind the tracking devices.
Ran Ruxiang, a principal of an elementary school in Guizhou told AFP, “When students enter the school, the smart uniforms help take a photo or video of them”.Automatic larms are set to go off if a student walks out of the school building without permission.
In addition, if students try to swap uniforms in order to leave the campus, the system is designed to prevent that: Facial recognition scanners at school gates match the chips with the correct student and the alarm rings, reports the Telegraph.
According to state-run media, Global Times, although the school’s administrators and parents have access to the location data, Principal of Renhuai Lin Zongwu said that “we choose not to check the accurate location of students after school.”
Zongwu also noted that attendance rates have risen dramatically since the uniform’s introduction.
The chips can also reportedly be used as a cashless payment system for snacks bought on school grounds, although parents and the school would see everything a student buys.
Two chips are inserted in the shoulders of uniforms and can endure up to 150 C and 500 washes, Yuan Bichang, the company’s project manager, told the Global Times.