A growing number of secondary schools are introducing "swipe cards" for pupils in a bid to reduce truancy and cut down on time spent recording pupil attendance.
The wallet-size laminated cards contain bar codes which allow students to "clock-in" in the mornings and again after lunch.
Each card contains data including pupils' names and class numbers, which are fed directly into scanning machines which can be wall-mounted or hand-held. When the pupils swipe their cards, their details and arrival times are fed into an electronic database, thereby doing away with the need for tedious morning roll calls.
The system is even capable of automatically generating mobile phone text messages or e-mails to parents whose children are absent without prior notice.
Mr Michael Blanchfield, the principal of St Paul's Christian Brothers School on North Brunswick Street in Dublin, said the system frees up staff by cutting down the time spent on administrative work. His school, which has around 260 pupils, installed the equipment earlier this year, replacing a more traditional attendance record system based on paper identity cards collected daily.
"It's a way of bringing schools into the modern age," he said. "In most businesses you clock-in as such, so this is a way of entering the students into our records straight away."
Mr Blanchfield said the school did not want to lose its personal touch, so he scans the pupils' cards as they enter the building using a hand-held device. Despite its Big Brother overtones, Mr Blanchfield said there have been no negative reactions from parents to the new system.
Mr John Purdy from IT company Ergo, one of several firms selling such systems, said demand had increased as schools geared up for the new term which starts next week.
He said his company had sold the equipment to more than 20 schools, and he expects this to increase to 50 in the coming weeks and some 400 in a year.
O'Connell's secondary school on the North Circular Road in Dublin is installing the system, mindful of its obligations under the Education Welfare Act 2000, which came into force last summer. This law obliges parents to provide school principals with a reason if their child is absent, and the principals must inform the Education Welfare Board if absences exceed 20 days in any school year.
Parents can ultimately be fined or imprisoned for a month if their children consistently fail to attend. O'Connell's principal, Mr Mick Finucane, said parents he had spoken to were supportive of the initiative.