5 minutes
Yes, you are absent today
Muhammad Salem Al Ali
July 14, 2022
Yesterday, a friend invited me and urged me to come, and as soon as I knew the invitees, I rushed to accept the invitation, as they were classmates with whom I spent the most beautiful days of youth, between adventure here and misery there.
As it is well known, sessions like this must be interspersed with tales and stories, and must also be recalled for the most beautiful moments and the funniest details;
The one who reminded me of the professor of physics who made me his preoccupation because of what he saw from me of disturbance and disruption of the lesson, and another who talked about his suffering with the professor of the Arabic language who was investigating his mistakes and embarrassing him in front of the rest of the students;
The most noticeable is that friend who talked about his skills in avoiding recording days of absence and hours of delay, whether for him or his companions. , when he was late, on the basis that he had been present since morning and that the observer was the one who did not notice his presence, citing his companions, who often confirmed his words and affirmed his authenticity.
There is no doubt that finding solutions to such problems has become one of the easiest tasks today, but the expansion of the application remains;
Most educational institutions around the world still take attendance manually by calling the students’ names during the lecture or lesson hours and then writing them down in the record or comparing them with a sheet of other names. There are a few who have adopted biometric systems or provided students with magnetic cards that they use through a special reader;
However, these methods have many drawbacks, ranging from long queues at the iris device, the time it takes to pass the fingerprint device to all students during the lesson, causing them to lose their focus, to the possibility of fraud and misuse of magnetic cards.
Perhaps you knew the solution here before I elaborated on it, which is the use of artificial intelligence systems;
It is to be noted that it is an old and new concept that has been experimentally implemented in China, the United States and some other countries, and of course also in the UAE within the smart school and smart learning programs.
Through this method, students do not need to stand for a long time in front of cameras. In fact, cameras installed in classrooms and gates scan faces in real time and compare them to the database. They follow students, moment by moment, from the entrance gate until they later sit on their desks, and also during break and activity time, and there is no opportunity In front of the aforementioned friend to evade or deceive the system.
Since such systems rely mainly on computer processing power, in addition to their urgent need to store a large volume of information, they are today responsive to demand. Our age is primarily digital, and its basis is big data and the fastest processors.
Perhaps the issue will be simpler than that and much less expensive, when the day comes when the student grabs his mobile device and visualizes himself through a specific application for this purpose, while artificial intelligence systems verify the matching of shape and image;
And geographical positioning systems from place and time that require its presence within the school or university campus.
Attendance control is one of the vital administrative processes in all educational institutions, and the presence of a well-organized system will help these institutions achieve their educational goals to the fullest, especially if we know that these systems are the motto of intelligence and accuracy, as neither the absent is present nor the present is missing.
Founder of Suhail Smart Solutions
To read the previous articles of the writer please click on its name.