KOLLAM: A school in the tribal hamlet of Achankovil in eastern Kollam has made its mark in technological advancement by implementing automated attendance register that too developed by the students as part of their curriculum.
The Government Vocational Higher Secondary School here has installed an advanced Smart Attendance with Robotics (SAR) facility which helps to automatically register the attendance of students entering the classroom.
The school helped the students develop the SAR facility in association with the Kerala State Council for Science Technology and Environment (KSCSTE) as part of national technology day, making them undertake and implement the project in robotics.
"The second year students have microcontroller and robotics as their third module in the curriculum. The device was developed using electronics bricks which help them understand the electronics better and also develop their interest in the topic," D.S. Manu, Principal, VHSS Achankovil told DC.
The students and teachers jointly developed the facility in connection with learning robotics as part of their academics. The automatic robotic facility will register the number of students getting into and going out of the classrooms using infrared technology. This number will be displayed inside the classrooms in specially designed screens.
The device also sends the details of student movement in real time to the smartphone used by the respective class teacher and the computer set up in the school office. The teachers with electronics department Vishnu and Firoz Khan supervised the students to develop SAR making their classrooms smart.
The school that was under neglect is slowly gaining momentum in the race to keep up with the standards. "The students in this school are mostly from tribal hamlets and are not aware of the importance of education. We have taken efforts to spread awareness among their parents and have increased the pass per cent from 40 to 70 last year. An NSS unit has also been formed for the students promoting to bring them to the mainstream," Mr. Manu added.
The school has also been selected to form Bhoomitra Sena for environmental cleanliness, promoted by the Department of environment and climate change.
