There has been a significant increase in the popularity of web-based systems globally over the last decade, mostly attributed to their sophisticated nature and their capacity to provide simultaneous user support. ¹ Research by Mulyananda et al. ² in Indonesia also highlighted the importance of information technology (IT) systems in attendance management, finding that manual control was time-consuming in educational care. According to Molina-Ríos and Pedreira-Souto, ³ these systems are similar to traditional software and require development processes that include requirements gathering and programming in different languages, which can lead to uncertainty during their development. In addition, the generalized adoption of web systems, driven by their fast growth and many advantages, contributed significantly to educational management, ⁴ facilitating direct interaction between end users and web page content.

In Peru, many public and private organizations have implemented software to automatize their educational processes, giving them a competitive advantage by enabling them to reduce costs in terms of money, time, and personnel. ⁵ In this context, the education sector has shown increasing investment on technology, with private education and professional activities among the most important sectors. ⁶ In the public education sector, institutions have the responsibility to account for, control, and report student attendance in a responsible manner. ⁷ These educational institutions are subordinate to the “Unidad de Gestión Educativa Local” (UGEL), as an example of local government decentralization, and depend on the “Dirección Regional De Educación” (DRE) for administrative, regulatory, and technical support. Management follows the rules of the “Ministerio de Educación” (MINEDU), which standards codes and processes for student control, where failure or delays in sending this information can result in warnings, memorandums, or the retention of financial resources. ⁸

A number of educational settings have been implementing web-based attendance systems with positive results. Jadhav et al. ⁹ developed a QR code-based system that accelerates and automatizes attendance registration in educational institutions, improving efficiency and reducing administrative cost. On the other hand, Rahaman et al. ¹⁰ developed SmartPresence, a system that exploits Wi-Fi networks to automatically register attendance, showing the effectiveness of lightweight technologies in educational management. In a similar way, agile methodologies such as Scrum have facilitated the successful implementation of educational systems, allowing iterative acceleration and achieving functionalities that improve significantly the control work. ¹¹ Currently, according to information provided by officials at public educational institutions in San Vicente de Cañete, Lima, Peru, attendance information is registered in paper documents and then typed into Excel worksheets, which has reportedly resulted in unorganized and duplicated registrations over the year, as well as reports with incomplete or incorrect information.

Therefore, the objective of this research is to implement web-based software that will improve the school attendance control process and provide the institution with a technological advance to face new educational challenges. In addition, it seeks to provide accurate information on student attendance, which will enable efficient management of institutional resources and indirectly promote quality education for both students and society. While it is true that there are several applications with similar objectives in other fields, ¹² it is important to note that the application described in this article has been developed especially for the rural secondary education area, taking into account the particular needs and requirements of an institution which lacks both technological tools and knowledge in the implementation of technology in the education process.

This tool is a significant innovation in the context of rural education and represents an important solution for improving attendance monitoring in schools with limited connectivity. The application complies with education sector laws and regulations regarding information management ¹³ and demonstrates how technology can be used to improve public-sector services and promote digital transformation. This may be relevant for other institutions wishing to implement digital solutions to improve information management. It therefore represents an innovation in the local context and contributes to the progress of digital solution implementation in the education context.

In this section, we provide a detailed account of the methods used in the development and operation of our software tool customized for attendance registration in secondary educational institutions.

The automated generation of QR codes for student identification represents a significant advance over traditional credentialing systems. Research by Mohammed and Zidan ¹⁴ highlighted that animated QR codes effectively reduce fraud in attendance registration, which coincides with our approach of encrypting student metadata in the generated codes. Shah ¹⁵ defended QR systems as light-weight alternatives to more expensive biometric devices, validating our decision to implement this technology in a rural context with limited resources. Additionally, Skurowski et al. ¹⁶ demonstrated that data compression in QR codes is critical to maintaining high recognition rates even with moderate-resolution cameras, which supports our strategy of compressing metadata before encoding it. For his part, Sancar ¹⁷ showed that deep learning-based processing techniques can reconstruct partially damaged QR codes, suggesting future lines of research to improve the resilience of our system to codes damaged by constant physical use.

Improvements in attendance recording and the ability to operate without a constant connection significantly optimized the identification and documentation of student attendance. This is consistent with Siew et al., ¹⁸ who developed a hybrid facial recognition and QR system that improved transparency and usability in university settings, although our system goes a step further by operating efficiently even without continuous connectivity. Similarly, Rafila et al. ¹⁹ validated QR technology in Indonesian universities by replacing paper signatures, confirming significant reductions in registration times, while Shaban et al. ²⁰ developed a QR-based multi-platform application to automate attendance in medical settings, showing how versatile this tech is. This implementation introduces a non-blocking FIFO queue mechanism in IndexedDB that allows for operational continuity during connectivity interruptions, a critical feature validated by Kormos and Wisdom, ²¹ who identified the digital divide as the main barrier to technological integration in rural schools.

The implementation of the parental monitoring module significantly improved transparency and communication between the educational institution and families, allowing parents to consult daily and monthly attendance registers in a structured manner. This is in line with Guo et al., ²² who reported that students whose parents have access to digital monitoring platforms show better attendance rates, corroborating the benefits observed in our implementation. Similarly, Knopik et al. ²³ described that during remote education, many parents frequently monitored attendance, demonstrating their readiness to use more structured systems when available. Lee ²⁴ evidenced that parents value tools that allow them to consult school records in an organized and accessible manner, while Calderón-Villarreal et al. ²⁵ demonstrated that parental involvement through digital platforms increased during the pandemic, and that attendance monitoring was a key factor in educational contexts.

The automatic notification system improved communication between school employees and enabled early intervention in cases of recurring absenteeism or tardiness. This aligns with Harwanto et al., ²⁶ who found that digital communication that includes notifications about absences increases the perception of transparency and effectiveness in school management. Similarly, Musaddiq et al. ²⁷ showed that the use of integrated digital platforms for attendance monitoring contributes to increasing institutional responsibility for student retention metrics. Hansen et al. ²⁸ emphasized the importance of systems that, in addition to monitoring attendance, offer structured support in cases of prolonged absenteeism, facilitating the early identification of students at risk. For his part, O’Connor Bones ²⁹ focused on communication with parents during the pandemic, and his results support the relevance of timely and automatized notifications as a means of reinforcing educational management and support in contexts of high uncertainty.

The web-based platform has significantly improved the attendance monitoring process at the public secondary school in Imperial, Cañete. After its implementation, the software demonstrated notable improvements in the four proposed dimensions (QR code generation, offline attendance recording, parental monitoring, and automatic notifications). These improvements have significantly benefited the school by optimizing the attendance monitoring process.

The development and implementation of the QR code-based smart web platform has proven to be a viable and efficient solution for attendance management in rural educational institutions in Imperial, Cañete. In contrast to systems that rely on costly infrastructure or permanent connectivity, this model makes use of low-cost, light-weight technologies, facilitating its adoption in resource-limited environments. The simplicity of QR codes, combined with an optimized workflow, significantly reduces registration times and minimizes human errors associated with manual methods.

One fundamental contribution of this system lies in its hybrid, multi-level architecture, which incorporates local (IndexedDB), temporary (Redis), and persistent (MongoDB/Google Drive) caching strategies. This design ensures operational continuity even in scenarios with interrupted connectivity, a critical feature in areas with a digital divide. The ability to operate offline and synchronize data later ensures that attendance records are not interrupted, improving the reliability of the process. In addition, the integration of parental monitoring as a central component of the system reinforces the relationship between the school and the parents. Allowing parents to access their children’s attendance records in real time promotes active co-responsibility in the school process.

Finally, this research should be applied in other secondary schools, both public and private, with similar characteristics of limited connectivity, in order to improve and have access to precise and fast information on student attendance. At the same time, the extension of methods with complementary technologies such as NFC or integration with lightweight biometric systems is suggested, with the objective of further optimizing attendance registration time. In the future, it is considered relevant to develop predictive models based on accumulated historical attendance data that allow for the early identification of patterns of risk of school dropout, as well as to explore integration with the national education management system of the Peruvian Ministry of Education. The use of free cloud services and open-source tools shows that it is possible to deploy modern, scalable architectures with minimal investment. The modular approach and implementation through microservices make the solution adaptable and replicable in other educational contexts with similar challenges, constituting a practical benchmark for technological innovation in rural environments or those with infrastructure restrictions.

This study received institutional authorization from I.E. No. 20935 Asunción 8, granted by Director Elena Cullanco Serafina on December 17, 2025. The school authorized the use of its institutional context as a case study with the express agreement that all data on students, school employees, and tutors published in academic repositories would be completely made up and used for demonstration purposes, protecting the privacy of the real school community.

Individual consent from participants was not required, as the system was developed through an analysis of institutional needs with the school administration, and all personal data published in academic repositories was generated synthetically for demonstration purposes, without using real information from students, teachers, or parents.

The institutional authorization letter is included as a supporting document confirming that: (1) the institution approved the research and development of the system, (2) all published data would be fictitious to protect privacy, (3) the analysis of the system was based on real institutional needs, but the publication of data uses only synthetic information, and (4) the institution complies with Peruvian data protection laws relating to information on minors.

Software available from:

Source code available from: https://github.com/GeoCoderDev/SIASIS-WEB

Archived source code at time of publication: https://zenodo.org/records/17636629 ³¹

License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/