Building a Web-Based Attendance Tracking System for Secondary Schools in Enugu State

Student absenteeism is a persistent challenge in Nigerian secondary schools, with manual attendance registers prone to falsification, loss, and inaccuracy. This project builds a web-based attendance tracking system targeting secondary schools in Enugu State, South East Nigeria. The system is implemented using the Django framework with a SQLite database, and provides interfaces for teachers, school administrators, and parents. Developed using the prototyping model, the system incorporates iterative feedback from teachers and school principals across five pilot schools in Enugu urban and semi-urban areas. Features include daily attendance capture, automated SMS alerts to parents when students are absent, and monthly attendance reports for school administrators. A two-phase evaluation involving 60 teachers and 200 parents assessed system efficiency, communication value, and ease of use. Data shows that parental response to absenteeism improved by 55 percent after system deployment, and manual errors in attendance records dropped to near zero. The research notes that irregular power supply and limited internet access in rural Enugu schools remain barriers to full adoption. The study recommends subsidised data plans and solar-powered computing facilities to support rural deployments. Overall, the system demonstrates strong potential for reducing dropout rates by fostering parental engagement in student attendance monitoring. Keywords: attendance tracking, secondary school, Django, SMS notification, Enugu State