The Telangana Board of Intermediate Education has launched an innovative AI-powered facial recognition system (FRS) to monitor student attendance across 430 government junior colleges, effective August 23, 2025.
The initiative, aimed at tackling absenteeism and ensuring transparency, has already registered 63,587 of 164,621 students as of August 24, with full enrollment expected by August 26.
The FRS uses advanced facial biometrics to record attendance in seconds, syncing data to a centralized database for real-time oversight by the Directorate of Intermediate Education.
Covering approximately 1.8 lakh students and staff, the system logs attendance twice daily—morning and afternoon—and integrates with WhatsApp to send absence alerts to parents via SMS or instant messaging.
This marks a significant step in Telangana’s push for digital transformation in education, building on earlier pilots in Hyderabad, Rangareddy, and Medchal-Malkajgiri districts since 2023. Authorities claim the system eliminates proxy attendance and boosts accountability.
However, the rollout has raised privacy concerns. The Internet Freedom Foundation emphasized that facial recognition for minors requires parental consent, which remains unaddressed in official documentation. Critics also warn of potential misidentification and data security risks, particularly in the absence of a comprehensive data protection law in India. Teachers’ unions have previously opposed similar systems, citing technical issues like device compatibility.
- Press release
