Bangkok school issues eIDs to students
16 July, 2014
category: Education, Privilege Control
The Pathum Thani Provincial Administration Organization (PAO) has issued a new electronic identification card for students that will enable the school to send SMS text notification directly to parents if their student skips class.
A demonstration was held to show how the ID card worked at Samkhok School in Sam Khok district, and a budget of 1 million baht – roughly $31,100 – was used to issue the cards to all 3,500 students at the school.
According to the Bangkok Post, the card contains the personal information of each student and will be used to record class attendance. Students will scan their cards as they enter the school at one the six installed scanners, with teachers supervising each scanner to prevent students from scanning cards for their friends.
Students will be required to scan their card upon arrival between 6:30 and 8:20 a.m. and again when leaving between 3:45 and 5:30pm. The system will send SMS text messages to the parents of any student who fails to scan their card within these timeframes.
Parents can also verify the location of their children any time by visiting the system’s website. Each time they scan their card, students are credited with 100 marks for good behavior. If they are never late or absent, or if they are credited for positive behavior, the marks will increase and the school will issue small rewards for reaching certain levels.
Those who are late, absent or skip class, however, will see their marks cut, with marks below 100 indicating that the student will not pass to the next grade.
The school where the new card system is being implemented teaches grades 1-6 and is run by the Pathum Thani Provincial Administration Organization.
