Pictured are students from No.11 School of Renhuai in Guizhou Province wearing intelligent uniforms at the playground. Photo: Courtesy of the school

Schools in China are promoting "intelligent uniforms" to better monitor students' attendance and whereabouts.



More than 10 schools in Southwest China's Guizhou Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region have adopted the uniforms.



If students wear the uniforms, the school authorities receive recorded accurate timing of their entry and exit and automatically send the data to parents and teachers, said Lin Zongwu, principal of No. 11 School of Renhuai in Guizhou Province.



More than 800 students in his school have been wearing the intelligent uniforms since the fall of 2016.



According to Guizhou Guanyu Technology Company that provides the technology behind the "intelligent uniforms," an automatic voice alarm activates if students wearing intelligent uniforms walk out of school without permission.



Through the help of the facial recognition equipment installed on the doors of schools, if students swap their uniforms, the alarm also rings.



Two chips are inserted in the shoulders of uniforms and can endure up to 150 C and 500 washes, Yuan Bichang, the company's project manager, told the Global Times.



But the uniforms might provoke privacy concerns as the system can locate students even in non-school hours.



"We choose not to check the accurate location of students after school, but when the student is missing and skipping classes, the uniforms help locate them," Lin said.



He noted that the attendance rate has largely increased since the application of intelligent uniforms.