Strengthening Of Students’ Class Attendance Using Biometric Authentication System To Enhance Delivery Of Competence-Based Quality Education

Delivery of competence-based quality education for students' academic achievements strongly correlates with effective student class attendance. In Tanzania, no student registered by the NACTVET is eligible for examination unless he/she has earned 75% of class attendance. In this regard, most education institutions use paper-based class attendance to manage students' class attendance. The system requires students to sign to his/her name as the class session is in progress. Despite this effort made by educational institutions still, the manual process of monitoring and tracking students’ class attendance remains challenging for module facilitators. This study examined the problem associated with the paper-based methods of monitoring and tracking students’ class attendance by collecting primary data using questionnaires from students of higher learning institutions in the Arusha Region. After the data analysis findings revealed that paper-based students’ class attendance has many drawbacks which include time-consuming and students’ signature impersonation. The paper-based class attendance facilitates dishonest students to forge the signatures of the absent students. To address these challenges, the study recommends education institutions implement cost-effective biometric class attendance such as fingerprints or facial recognition scanners, which can automatically monitor and keep students' attendance records on the database without interfering with the class session.