Editor’s Note: Guest Author Pratibha is a technology enthusiast interested in analysing and reporting about different technologies.
The Brazilian city of Vitoria da Conquista is start on student uniforms integrated with radio tags, as part of a organism that will repeatedly text parents with the position of their child. According to the Associated Press, some 20,000 apprentice across 213 schools in the city have been embattled by the idea, with that figure set to grow to 43,000 – 100 percent of its students aged four to 14 – by 2013. The kids will be given t-shirts with locator microchips embedded in them that will identify if they are within the surrounding area of their school at the start of the day. If they are, parents will be sent a text message inform them of their arrival, and if not they will be informed after 20 minutes of classes starting that their child is not in school.
Vitoria da Conquista secretary Coriolano Moraes explained that the scheme aims to cut the number of truants in the city: “We noticed that many parents would bring their children to school but would not see if they actually entered the building because they always left in a hurry to get to work on time. They would always be surprised when told of the number times their children skipped class.” The city has spended USD 670,000 to intend, test and produce the tagged shirts.While it look as if to be a fail-proof mode to ensure that parents know if their children are in school or not, there may obviously be worry about privacy. The potential to get used to this proposal into other region however — to keep track of employees for example — is enormous.
