Passwords are history as school rolls-out fingerprint registration

A school in Stockholm has reduced the time students spend logging on to computer systems in class by up to 50 per cent, by introducing a fingerprint registration system.

More than 450 students and teachers can access the school's computer network faster using the system, by reducing the amount of time lost during a 40-minute lesson by teachers having to find out children's passwords.

The school estimates that it can save between Euro100 and Euro300 (£69-£206) per student a year by reducing the time IT staff spend resetting access rights.

'The best thing about this fingerprint biometric system is that we win back a lot of time,' said Birgitta Benetsson, head teacher at Kvarnby School. 'It takes less than two minutes for everybody to get started. In the past, children would forget their password and it would take the teacher more time to start lessons.'

The fingerprint system, which retains unique biometric information to identify students physically, has also cut down on incidents of students bullying other students for their passwords to gain unauthorised access to computers, according to the school.

'It means that the wrong people can't access the computer system,' said Benetsson. The pilot has now been extended to nine other schools in Stockholm, with more than 4,000 pupils trialling the system.

Swedish-based Precise Biometrics, which installed the system at Kvarnby School, has also won contracts to help other government biometric projects.

The Thailand government has awarded the firm a contract to provide 36,000 fingerprint scanners for its national identity card scheme. In the first phase of rollout, 12 million cards will be issued containing biometric smartcard technology from Precise.