A Parent Authentication System for the Security of Pre-basic School Pupils

Abstract

The safety of pupils is of uttermost concern to school authorities and especially parents in this age of rampant kidnappings and other malicious activities by unscrupulous people within the human ecosystem. In this paper, a robust security system, referred to as a Parent Authentication System (PAS) is designed and implemented using bi-modal authentication and/or verification mechanisms for the safety of Pre-Basic School pupils. The primary module for authentication and verification is Fingerprint (i.e. biometrics) with an alternative module of a Password which, can only be used if the primary module fails or rejects the biometrics of a particular user. The Agile System Development Life Cycle Prototyping model was leveraged to design the system; all key components responsible for the functioning of the system have been appropriately implemented and integrated resulting in a very successful and robust system. The developed system was deployed and tested at Garu Senior High School in the Upper East Region of Ghana. During the test implementation, It was affirmed that students with issues such as scratches and dirt on their fingers were denied access and were not able to be authenticated and verified. However, after three attempts via this primary authentication module, they were able to use the alternative module, which gave them the opportunity to be authenticated and verified. As a result, a full implementation of this system will make sure only rightful parents pick up their wards from school. This system can also be deployed in other areas for attendance monitoring or personality tracking.