No chance for bunking as school unveils punching machine

Mayyanad: Electronic attendance punching machine is set to replace the good old attendance book in Kerala schools. A beginning in this direction has been made at the Vellamanal Government Higher Secondary School at Mayyanad. It is reportedly the first school to use a punching machine to record attendance.

Punching information is at once transmitted to the school's computer as well as on the mobile phones of guardians. Students have to record attendance by registering their finger print on the punching machine as they enter the class. It has to be done when they exit too.

The classes begin at 9 am, but late-coming students are allowed to punch up to 9.30. Attendance will not be marked after that. The out-punching is set at 3.30 pm. It will show whether the student has attended classes in the afternoon too.

The school has installed punching machines in six class rooms in the higher secondary section, spending Rs 54,000. Sixteen surveillance cameras are also planned, inside and outside. The total cost is estimated at Rs 1.20 lakh.

The punching was a PTA initiative. Former students donated Rs 20,000. The school plans to extend it to the high school also.

M Naushad, MLA, inaugurated the new system. Mayyanad Panchayat president L Lakshmanan presided over the function. Panchayat members S Fathahuddin and R Sarita, PTA president E Naushad, principal K E Lalukumar and head mistress K L Jaya addressed the gathering.