KARACHI: Sindh’s newly introduced facial recognition-based attendance system for government school employees encountered technical problems on its first day, forcing staff at some schools to temporarily rely on manual attendance registers.
The system, known as the Facial Recognition Attendance Monitoring and Evaluation System (FRAMES), was introduced to improve monitoring of teachers and non-teaching staff and strengthen transparency in the provincial education system.
During the initial rollout, teachers reported difficulties with the attendance application, including errors that prevented some employees from successfully marking their attendance through facial recognition. As a result, some schools in Karachi reverted to the traditional paper-based system while the technical issues were being addressed.
The pilot phase covers six districts: Karachi East, Hyderabad, Naushahro Feroze, Jacobabad, Ghotki and Umerkot. Around 49,565 teaching and non-teaching employees are included in the initial implementation.
The digital system was designed to record attendance using facial recognition and location-based verification. Officials hope the technology will help prevent proxy attendance, improve staff monitoring and address long-standing concerns about absenteeism and so-called ghost employees.
Earlier plans indicated that the system would use geo-fencing so that employees could mark attendance only from their assigned workplace. The application was also designed to store attendance information when internet connectivity was unavailable and upload the data once a connection was restored.
The first-day problems have raised questions about the readiness of the system and the need for technical support during its wider implementation. Officials will need to resolve application errors and ensure that schools have reliable connectivity and functioning devices before the system can operate smoothly across the province.
Despite the initial setback, the facial recognition initiative represents a major attempt by the Sindh Education Department to move toward technology-based attendance monitoring and strengthen accountability across government schools.
