Mumbai:
Rohan reached school safely; 1pm -- Rohan has left the institute's premises; the school bus has just crossed Vashi . Imagine getting updates like these about the whereabouts of your child while you are at work.
Wouldn't it quell the anxiety of parents? That's exactly the intention behind the Greenfingers Global School's decision to install the Radio Frequency Identification Technology (RFID) in the institute's premises.
Parents of the 850 students studying in the Kharghar school will from next week get regular updates about their child's activities.
Students will be asked to wear an RFID-tagged ID card, which once it crosses the strategically-placed RFID reader and antenna, will record their attendance.
It will then be added to the database.
The wireless technology comes as a relief for all teachers since they would be spared from the cumbersome process of recording attendance. With RFID, attendance will be recorded even before a teacher enters the classroom.
It will also track the time when teachers walk in and out of class.
Apart from these benefits, the system also ensures that the school can send bulk SMSes about any event in the institute.
"We prepare a separate group of each class and section, which facilitates in sending relevant messages for a respective batch to all the students at one go," Kapil Mathur, founder and partner of Veni Vidi Vici, the company which installed RFID in the institute's premises said.
The company is a business associate of Miracle Media, the pioneers of RFID technology in city schools.
The school was particularly impressed by the SMS system since it has the advantage of being eco-friendly. "CCTVs prove helpful only after a mishap. With RFID, we don't need to waster paper for circulars.
Everything will be on our fingertips," said Vanita Gambhir, principal of Greenfingers. Miracle Media's Ashish Sehgal said: "We have installed the set up in the school premises and collected the required data.
We are integrating the chip inside the badges. The system will be functional within a week's time."
Parents are overjoyed that the technology will reduce their stress.
"We are looking forward to the system. My wife and me are in office most of the time, so it would be of great help to know about my daughter's whereabouts," said Shishir Pasi, whose daughter Aditi is a standard III student of the school.
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