A Secure and Intelligent Student Attendance Management System for Smart Educational Institutions

Abstract

Traditional attendance management in educational institutions, which relies on paper registers and manual spreadsheets, is plagued by inefficiencies, errors, and security vulnerabilities. This paper presents an intelligent, role-based Student Attendance Management System designed to automate the entire attendance tracking process. The proposed system leverages a full-stack web architecture comprising Node.js, PostgreSQL, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to create a secure, efficient, and accessible digital platform. It implements a Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) model with three distinct user types: Administrators, who manage the system; Teachers, who mark attendance for their classes; and Students, who have read-only access to their own records. The system significantly reduces the time required for attendance marking, eliminates manual errors, prevents data loss, and provides real-time reporting and analytics. Experimental results from a pilot deployment demonstrate an 85% reduction in time spent on attendance, a 98% data accuracy rate, and zero instances of unauthorized access. Comparative analysis with existing RFID-based and biometric attendance systems validates the proposed system’s effectiveness in terms of cost, accessibility, and ease of deployment. Statistical significance testing confirms the consistency of results. Security penetration testing validates system robustness against SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and session hijacking. Computational performance analysis demonstrates the system’s capability to handle concurrent users effectively. The proposed framework provides a scalable and reliable solution for modernizing administrative processes in educational institutions