Chinese Schools Embed Tracking Chips In Students’ Uniforms To Monitor Truancy

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Pictured are students from No.11school of Renhuai in Guizhou Province wearing intelligent uniforms at the playground. Image: Courtesy of the school

Chinese deployment of technological solutions solves the problem of truancy and skipping classes by school students in China, using “intelligent uniforms.”

Chinese students now wear school uniforms that come with two chips in the shoulders that track students’ locations.

The tracking chips record accurate timing of students’ entry and exit from schools, and automatically sends the data to parents and teachers.

This is complemented with facial recognition system deployed at the entrance of the school to make sure students are wearing the uniform that belongs to them.

The tracking chips monitor whereabouts of students to ensure that students are in class when due, and if they are not, an alarm sound is triggered.

“An automatic voice alarm activates if students wearing intelligent uniforms walk out of the school without permission,” says Guizhou Guanyu Technology company that provides the technology behind the intelligent uniform.

ALSO READ: China Deploys Robot Birds To Monitor Its Citizens.

The trackers also detects when a student has dozed off in a lecture.

Students who try to play pranks of giving a friend their uniforms to wear, and then that friend tries to walk through the entrance wearing the wrong uniform will also activate a triggered alarm.

However, more than 10 schools in Southern China Guizhou province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region have adopted the uniform.

And more than 800 students in the No.11 school of Renhuai in Guizhou province have been wearing the intelligent uniform since the end of 2016.

You might be worried about the washing procedures in relations to the intelligent uniforms: Yuan Bichang, the company’s project manager told Global Times that the uniform can endure up to 150C and 500 washes.

About privacy concerns, “We choose not to check the accurate location of students after school, but when the student is missing and skipping classes, the uniforms help locate them,” Lin said.

He however, noted that the attendance rate has largely increased since the application of intelligent uniforms.