China Adopts Chip-Powered ‘Smart’ School Uniforms

Read these two halves of the same text and make the pairs of synonyms. Then you can try the TRUE / FALSE question which you can find with the second text.

     

     Schools in southern China are using chip-powered "smart" school uniforms to track their students in a bid to tackle truancy and boost attendance, according to state media.

     The uniforms use chips to monitor the location of students and can record their exit and entry into school, according to the tech firm behind the tracking devices.

     "When students enter the school, the smart uniforms help take a photo or video of them," explained principal Ran Ruxiang, whose elementary school in Guizhou province started rolling out smart uniforms last November.

     More than half of the school's 1,400 students were wearing the smart uniforms, he told Agence France-Presse.

     At least 10 schools in Guizhou and neighbouring Guangxi have adopted the technology, according to a Thursday report by the Global Times.

adjoining                          deal with

apparatus                         intelligent

boost                                roll out

company                          trace

keep tabs on                    monitor

record                               firm

smart                                neighbouring

start off                             increase

tackle                               device

track                                 log

     If students walk out of the school without permission, an automatic voice alarm will activate, the report said.

     Paired with facial recognition devices installed on school doors, the smart uniforms can also sense if students swap uniforms.

     "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," Guizhou province school principal Lin Zongwu told the Global Times.

         But so far, it's not clear how effective smart uniforms are at preventing students from playing hooky.

    The high-tech uniforms have helped increase the attendance rate, "but not much," according to Ran, who added that the school chose the uniforms mainly as a way to send notifications and homework to students through an app connected to the uniform chips. 

                                                                                             The Guardian 21 December 2018

be aware of           prevent

exchange              attendance

go off                     activate

leave                     sense

match                    swap

miss                      hooky

precise                  accurate

presence               skip

stop                       pair

truant                     walk out

KEY

Part 1

adjoining - neighbouring

apparatus - device

boost - increase

company - firm

keep tabs on - monitor

record - log

smart - Intelligent

start off - roll out

tackle - deal with

track - trace

Part 2

be aware of - sense

exchange - swap

go off - activate

leave - walk out

match - pair

miss - skip

precise - accurate

presence - attendance

stop - prevent

truant - hooky

Schools in China introduce ‘smart uniforms’ with GPS chips to track students’ movements and stop napping

     Schools in China have created uniforms with tracking chips to monitor students' whereabouts and stop them playing truant. Skiving off classes triggers an alarm to notify both teachers and parents of the student’s absence and an automatic voice alarm is activated if a student leaves school without permission.

      The so-called “smart uniforms”, which have been criticised on social media, record the time and date a student enters the school and a short video parents can see through a mobile app. Eleven schools in the southwest province of Guizhou have introduced the uniforms, developed by local tech firm Guizhou Guanyu Technology.

     If a student falls asleep in class, alarms will sound, and parents will be able to keep tabs on the purchases their child makes at the school and use a mobile app to set spending limits, according to the firm’s website.

     A GPS system also tracks student movements even once they have left the school premises. But Yuan Bichang, the company’s project manager, said the school would only use the tracking beyond school hours if a pupil were to go missing.

     Mr Bichang told state media Global Times that attendance had gone up since the uniforms had been introduced. He said the two chips, which are installed in each uniform’s shoulders, are able to withstand up to 500 washes and 150º C.

     Facial recognition makes sure each uniform is worn by its correct owner to stop students tricking the system and swapping uniforms.

     The company released a public statement through popular Chinese social media site Weibo saying the uniforms “focus on safety issues”, and provide a “smart management method” that is advantageous to students, parents and teachers.

     The uniforms have been criticised on social media. “If you were a child, would you like to be monitored 24 hours a day?” one Weibo user asked. “Don’t children have human rights and privacy?” added another user.

     Lin Zongwu, principal of Number 11 School of Renhuai in Guizhou, said despite the fact the school was able to track students at all times, they used this technology sparingly.

The Independent Friday 28 December 2018

1. Smart uniforms are widely accepted in China. 
2. Parent can watch when their children access the school. 
3. Students can freely buy as much as they want at school. 
4. Schools are allowed to use the system after school hours. 
5. It is impossible to know if students use the wrong uniform. 
6. The company believes there are no drawbacks to these uniforms.
7. Schools barely use this new technology to track their students. 

FALSE “The so-called “smart uniforms”, which have been criticised on social media,” or “The uniforms have been criticised on social media”

TRUE “and a short video parents can see through a mobile app”

FALSE “and use a mobile app to set spending limits”

TRUE “the school would only use the tracking beyond school hours if a pupil were to go missing”

FALSE “Facial recognition makes sure each uniform is worn by its correct owner”

TRUE “that is advantageous to students, parents and teachers”

TRUE “they [the school] used this technology sparingly”