Worried about taking attendance in the class because of its monotonous nature or new techniques adopted by students like proxy attendance? Or You are so concentrating on the teaching so forget to take attendance in the class? Introduce a standardized way to monitor attendance in class with the help of a student attendance management system.
How does one monitor attendance without the help of an attendance management system?
Traditionally, teacher monotonously takes the manual way of recording attendance. A lot of time is wasted in this method also teachers need to keep some time reserved for taking attendance in every session.
Taking attendance
The teacher needs to carry an attendance register in every session. There are different registers of each class, so teachers are responsible to take the respective register to the class. In another way, the teacher needs to take the attendance sheets and circulate them in the class to make the individual attendance. There is an extra headache of maintaining those sheets and punching them into the central attendance register. Also, there are chances of misuse of this like making proxy attendance, thus it does not give an accurate picture of the attendance.
Keeping the records safe
After taking the attendance in the class, they need to punch it in the central student information system. This is another unnecessary activity that needs to accomplish by the teacher. Keeping the student’s attendance in a separate system does not serve any fruitful purpose.
Role of the relevant stakeholders
Teachers
Teachers need to bear the burden of unnecessary tasks like taking attendance and punching the attendance in the central system at the end of the day. Teachers are held accountable for these tasks, rather they can enhance themselves for teaching.
Parents
How teachers are informed when their wards are absent? Probably, they are informed at the end of the semester or year when there is no use for that information.
New-age solution for attendance management
Schools and colleges are introducing new-age solutions to overcome the hurdles of the traditional attendance system. As educational systems are adopting the school management system, the advanced attendance management system comes as an integral part of it.
Here are some of the popular ways of doing this using automated attendance software:
- Teacher punches the attendance in the classroom computers which is readily available for the central authority to work upon further actions. This is a very popular method in the lower classes of classes where the security of children is the responsibility of institutes and its updates need to be sent to their parents.
- An attendance manager will personally take attendance by visiting each class. He/she will punch the attendance on a laptop.
- Using a biometric, school administration can get all attendance information with a single click. This requires the RFID card/fingerprint records for all students stored in the system. The biometric will mark their attendance as soon as students put their cards/fingerprints on the device. The integrated system automatically updates the attendance and the information is available for school administration, parents, and teachers.
The first two ways are not fully-proof also there is a requirement of a dedicated person to do all these tasks. Using biometric attendance is a little expensive but it is a one-time investment and gives live updates of the student’s attendance.
Here are the top 10 benefits of the automatic student attendance management system:
- An automated attendance monitoring system reduces paperwork and efficiency in terms of time and money.
- It ensures 100% authentic data by avoiding duplicate data entry and errors in attendance recording.
- It provides real-time status tracking of absentees.
- In integration with the SMS system, students’ attendance information is sent to the parents’ mobile.
- Parents are aware of the whereabouts of their wards on regular basis.
- This system helps to increase the trust and transparency of the parents.
- It improves the visibility to monitor student attendance across multiple campuses.
- Student attendance apparently depicts the tutors teaching records.
- The attendance of students helps the administration to schedule the timetable.
- It deters the students to bunk the classes.
Adopting a complete school management system that comes with the student attendance management system has been beneficial for all. The school administrator or tutors can track down tardiness and truancy. This can help them to take necessary actions to see positive outcomes without waiting for months or semester end.
If you are a part of the school administration team, then insist on the student attendance management system in your school. If you are the parent of a school/college-going ward, then ask the school to implement this new technology to track down your ward’s whereabouts and in turn progress. A comprehensive school management software with an automated attendance system will give you a correct and accurate perspective of students’ attendance that will help to take necessary actions to grow them.