Facial recognition is increasingly becoming part of the Indian education system — promising efficiency, but raising questions about surveillance and children’s data. The move reflects a broader shift.
Attendance, once a teacher’s daily administrative task, is increasingly being treated as a data problem that technology can solve.
Karnataka’s Niranthara programme aims to record e-attendance through facial recognition of students across government and aided primary schools, high schools and pre-university colleges.
The Rajasthan government too has been pursuing AI-based initiatives in schools, including digital attendance and personalised learning tools. The state is planning to introduce biometric-based Student Facial Recognition System (FRS) in govt schools and anganwadi centres to record attendance and ensure transparency.
In Andhra Pradesh, facial-recognition systems have also been introduced in the education ecosystem, including for attendance and registration in teacher-training institutions.
Tamil Nadu has its Facial Recognition Attendance System, or FRAS, which has been used across government institutions, including participating educational institutions.
In August 2025, Telangana moved towards facial-recognition-based attendance in higher education, with plans covering degree colleges from the 2026–27 academic year.
Assam has been using facial recognition for student attendance since the rollout of Shiksha Setu in 2022. The AI-based system records attendance of both students and teachers, using individual and group facial recognition. An official Assam government report says students and teachers across schools are registered on the system, while a 2024 government report states that facial data of students had been entered into it.
How Safe Is Facial Recognition
The expansion of facial recognition into education is part of a much larger push towards digital identity and real-time monitoring. Automated attendance can reduce paperwork, limit proxy attendance and give administrators a real-time picture of who is actually present. Digital records can also feed into dashboards that monitor attendance, performance and other indicators.
However, a face is not simply another attendance credential. It is a biometric identifier. Unlike a password or ID card, a face cannot be changed if the underlying biometric data is compromised. That makes questions around collection, storage, retention, sharing and deletion particularly important.
According to UNESCO’s State of the Education Report for India 2022: Artificial Intelligence in Education – Here, There and Everywhere, which examined the growing use of artificial intelligence in education, highlighted that facial-recognition attendance systems were being used in Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Tamil Nadu, while warning that inadequate guidelines for the collection, handling, storage and sharing of students’ data could breach their privacy.
Recently, the Supreme Court declined to entertain a PIL seeking mandatory biometric attendance for school students across the country. The petition argued that such a system could help tackle “dummy educational institutions”, where students remain formally enrolled but may not regularly attend classes. A bench of Justices P. Narasimha and Alok Aradhe instead gave the petitioner liberty to approach the appropriate High Court.
While the order does not amount to a ruling that biometric attendance is unconstitutiona or that it should become mandatory, it brings a growing technological practice into sharper legal focus.
