The Need for Biometrics in Educational Institutions

Educational institutions are not only just about grade books and report cards. They now have access to a set of tools that can provide them with unprecedented insight into how students interact with class material. 

What are these tools? Biometrics!

Biometric identification is being implemented by educational institutes for a variety of reasons which can be mostly divided into two categories: internal control and ensuring safety and security. 

Many unwelcome situations, such as terrorist attacks, vandalism, and mass shootings have occurred in educational institutions around the world in recent years, prompting us to reconsider our positions. One of the security measures being considered is implementing biometrics in educational institutions. 

What Is the Need for Biometrics in Educational Institutions?

Tracking attendance is an important element of any educational institution, from K-12 schools to colleges and universities. Roll-calling, record book-based attendance, and card punching were all common methods of recording attendance in the past. These operations took longer because they were done manually by the teacher and administrative staff.

With a large number of students in a batch, this makes the work much more difficult. It also raises the likelihood of proxy attendance. These procedures have flaws, and a bad attendance tracking system can have a direct impact on the institute's educational quality as well as funding.

It is because of these issues, biometrics in schools and colleges have become a necessity. The biometric attendance system is based on biological passwords such as facial, fingerprint, vascular pattern, and iris recognition. This improves the security of students' identities while also protecting their privacy, and providing educational institutions with a fast and easy way to track attendance.

4 Ways Biometrics in Educational Institutions Can Be Helpful

Due to the limitations, inaccuracy, and security measures of traditional ID card/paper-based approaches, biometrics identification systems are becoming more relevant in schools.

Aside from being a more effective instrument for protecting the identities of students, teachers, staff, and visitors, biometric identification has the following influence on educational institutions' management systems:

1. Safety: The usage of scanners for security purposes is one of the most visible applications of biometrics in educational institutions. Authenticating an individual's identification by verifying their fingerprint or iris is an efficient technique to keep students and educators safe. 

These can also come in handy in other places where kids are expected to go during the school day, such as the cafeteria.

2. Maintaining Academic Integrity: Accurate assessment results are an essential component of education; it allows school districts and instructors to evaluate the progress of each individual, as well as their abilities as educators. 

When the integrity of means of assessment is threatened, it can pose a serious threat to meeting educational goals. Biometric technology in education can help to mitigate the severity of the problem by verifying users' identities and prohibiting them from accessing unauthorized records or cheating on tests.

3. More Efficient: Biometrics decreases administrative costs by speeding up the identification process and eliminating the usage of paper and stationery. On the other hand, because it encourages teachers and staff to be more accountable, they are more likely to deliver excellent service to students and institutions.

4. Maintaining Discipline: Every institute is subject to regulation due to biometric identification. It keeps track of perfect attendance without allowing for data manipulation. It avoids the use of proxy presence and the possibility of errors, which are both significant difficulties in older systems.

Biometric Solutions for Educational Institutions

Biometrics can be used in different aspects, from student identification to visitor identification. Here is how:

1. Biometrics for Students: Students' identities can now be verified without using traditional ID/paper-based methods, which present numerous problems, such as detecting students who want to misrepresent their identity or act as proxies for a friend.

Biometric student identification ensures the accuracy of attendance and entry and exit student records.

2. Biometrics for Teachers and Staff: Teachers and students can benefit from the speed and accuracy that biometric identification offers, such as more rapid payroll processing and a lower risk of errors. 

It also increases teacher and staff accountability for complying with their classes and timetables. Biometric identification can be easily applied to attendance and payroll processing for teachers and educational institution staff.

3. Biometrics for Visitors: Managing school visitors has a direct impact on the schools' safety and security. In a typical paper-based system, identifying visitors and guardians is difficult at best, and requires the staff to simply assume the information provided by visitors is accurate and authentic.

Imageware Biometric Solutions for Educational Institutions

Imageware has over 10 different biometrics to choose from, allowing you to mix modalities from various vendors, such as the face, finger, voice, iris, palm, and more. Our unique Biometric Engine and biometric fusion integrate information from numerous biometrics to boost accuracy tenfold.

Imageware can deliver exactly the solution you need to suit your particular performance, security, and budgetary requirements with contemporary Cloud-based, hybrid-Cloud, and on-premises options. Other vendors cannot match the ability to provide unique solutions at a Commercial-Off-the-Shelf (COTS) price.

Conclusion

Discipline is required for a good education. In schools, colleges, and universities, biometric identification establishes an ethical practice for attendance, check-in/check-out, and other activities. It also protects educational institutions' premises from external security threats. 

Institutes can use biometric identification with any of their existing systems thanks to the smooth integration of Cloud-based solutions.