Some people think schools in Kenya are like prisons and students are not given freedom to do what they like. But students in China are facing the real thing. Some schools in China have adopted the intelligent uniforms that have trackers to monitor students all the time and schools in the country are promoting the tech since they will be able to track student attendance and whereabouts.
How intelligent uniforms work
When a student wears the uniform, the school authorities receive recorded accurate timing of their entry and exit and automatically send the data to parents and teachers. If a student tries to leave the school during school hours, an alarm goes off. If a student leaves without their uniform an alarm also goes off, because the schools have facial recognition as well. If a student doesn’t go to school, an alarm goes off and the parents are contacted. The uniform can also detect if a student falls asleep during class – which will also trigger an alarm.
The uniform allows the parents and the school to have constant access to the location data. Although, the students have some freedom since Principal of Renhuai Lin Zongwu said to the Global Times that “we choose not to check the accurate location of students after school.” Zongwu also says that attendance rates have risen dramatically since the uniform’s introduction.
Yuan Biachy, the product manager at the uniform’s manufacturer provides that each ‘smart jacket’ can be washed over 500 times and survive temperatures of up to 150C. They can also be used as a cashless payment system for purchases within school grounds, much like tap to pay. Parents and the school can also see everything students buy.
More than 800 students in his school have been wearing the intelligent uniforms since 2016 and the company prides itself as being part of the Chinese regime’s tech ambitions. On its official website, Guizhou Guanyu explains that the firm was established “to respond to the country’s and the Communist Party’s call” for implementing “smart school campuses”—using the Chinese term for smart devices.
Users on Weibo, China’s Twitter have expressed their concern about privacy violations of students and the ethics of such devices. According to Epoch Times, a concerned social media user wondered how long it would be until all clothing for students and adults alike started tracking location.
Do you think such a uniform can revolutionize the education system in Kenya?
