A practical, step-by-step guide for teachers, school administrators, first responders, and parents. No technical background needed — just what you need to know to keep children safe.
👥 Everyone
🧑🏫 Teachers
🏫 School Admin
🚨 First Responders
👨👩👧 Parents
// 01 — Who uses CEICS?
Four people make the system work
CEICS is not a single app — it is a safety network that connects four groups of people. Everyone plays a different role, but you don't need to understand the technology to do your part.
🧑🏫
Class teacher
Receives real-time alerts on a phone or tablet when a child needs attention. Acts as the first human responder inside the school.
You will see: Push notifications with the child's name, what happened, and their last known location inside the school.
🏫
School administrator
Manages the gateway device, registers wearables, sets the school's geofence boundary, and reviews the audit log.
You will see: A web dashboard showing all active devices, alert history, and system health. Accessible from any browser on the school network.
🚨
First responder / security
Receives escalated alerts for physical assault, unauthorized zone exits, and distress events. Coordinates with teachers on the ground.
You will see: SMS alert with GPS coordinates, event type, and confidence level. Works on any basic mobile phone.
👨👩👧
Parent / guardian
Receives a daily summary and is notified only when an emergency alert is confirmed. Privacy is protected — parents never see raw biometric data, only events that actually occurred.
You will see: End-of-day attendance confirmation and emergency SMS if your child triggers a confirmed alert. No continuous tracking data is shared with parents — only confirmed events.
// 02 — The child's wearable
A smart badge — not a surveillance device
Each child wears a small badge or wristband. It looks and feels like a school ID card with a clip. Here is everything you need to know about it.
1
What it measures
The badge continuously reads four things from the child's body — none of which leave the badge as raw numbers:
// SENSORS INSIDE THE BADGE
📍 GPS location — where the child is within 2.5 metres
❤️ Heart rate & oxygen — from a small light sensor
🏃 Movement — accelerometer detects falls and running
💧 Stress response — tiny change in skin conductance
2
What happens every 5 seconds
The badge's tiny onboard computer looks at the last 5 seconds of sensor readings and makes a decision in 22 milliseconds. It asks: is this child OK, or is something wrong?
// DECISION MADE ON THE BADGE ITSELF
If the answer is "normal" → the number is discarded. No data leaves the badge.
If a possible emergency is detected → a small coded signal (not the raw data) is sent to the school gateway.
3
Putting it on and taking it off
The badge is worn clipped to the uniform collar or on a lanyard — similar to a school ID. Children can remove it at any time. The system notes when a badge goes offline but does not restrict movement.
// DAILY ROUTINE
Morning: Teacher scans badge against the gateway to register attendance — takes 2 seconds. School day: Badge runs automatically. Child does not need to do anything. End of day: Badge is placed in the charging dock. Battery lasts a full school day.
4
Battery and maintenance
The badge charges overnight in a shared dock — similar to a phone charger. No child or parent needs to manage the battery. The school admin receives a low-battery notification before it becomes a problem.
Important: The raw readings from the badge (heartbeat numbers, exact GPS coordinates, movement data) are processed and discarded inside the badge itself. They are never stored on the badge, never sent to the internet, and never accessible to anyone — including the school.
// 03 — Understanding alerts
Five types of alert — and what each means
When the system detects something unusual, it sends an alert. There are five types. Each alert tells you exactly what the AI detected, how confident it is, and the child's last known location.
🟢 All clear — normal
Child is doing normal activities — walking, sitting in class, running at break time. This is not an alert; it is the default silent state. No notification is sent.
Your action: Nothing needed.
97% detection accuracy
🟣 C1 — Fall or physical assault
A sudden violent impact was detected by the movement sensor. This could be a fall from playground equipment, a fight, or a physical attack.
Your action: Go immediately to the child's last known location shown on the alert. Assess injury. If assault is confirmed, follow school safeguarding protocol and notify the administrator.
94.7% F1-score · τ = 0.85
🔴 C2 — Seizure (URGENT)
A convulsive movement pattern was detected — consistent with an epileptic seizure. This is the highest-priority alert. Detection accuracy is 99.1%.
Your action: Respond immediately. Place child safely on their side. Do not restrain. Time the seizure. Call for medical help if it lasts more than 3 minutes. The system automatically re-alerts every 30 seconds until acknowledged.
99.1% recall · URGENT · τ = 0.92
🟡 C3 — Unauthorized zone exit
The child's GPS shows they have been outside the school boundary for more than 30 seconds. This could mean a child has wandered, left early, or — in high-risk areas — possible abduction.
Your action: Check the GPS location shown in the alert. If the child is near the gate, confirm with gate security. If location is unknown or access is restricted, escalate to the first responder immediately.
96.2% F1-score · 30s threshold
🟠 C4 — Physiological distress
The badge detected an abnormal combination of heart rate, blood oxygen level, and stress response. This can indicate shock, extreme fear, a medical emergency, or acute illness — even when the child appears calm externally.
Your action: Go to the child calmly. Check if they are conscious and responsive. Do not alarm the class. Notify the school nurse immediately and remove the child from the classroom if needed. Document the time and the confidence score shown in the alert.
91.2% F1-score · τ = 0.88
Two-window rule: The system requires the same alert type to appear in two consecutive 5-second windows before sending a notification. This means a child who jumps up suddenly and knocks their badge will not trigger a fall alert. A genuine sustained event will. This design reduces false alarms to 2.1% — compared to 4.8% for cloud-based systems.
// 04 — Teacher workflow
Your day-to-day experience as a teacher
As a teacher, your interaction with CEICS takes about 2 minutes in the morning. After that, the system runs silently and contacts you only when needed.
Outside boundary 45s · Near north gate · Conf. 91%
2m ago
✅
CEICS
28 / 28 children active
All wearables online · 08:32 registration complete
08:32
What your phone shows you
You receive push notifications on your school-issued phone (or personal phone if enrolled). The notification includes the child's name, what type of alert it is, and their location — so you can go directly to them without searching.
You never see raw sensor numbers. You only see: who, what, and where. That is all you need to act.
Acknowledging an alert: Tap the notification, then tap "Acknowledged" once you have reached the child. This stops the repeat notifications and logs your response time in the audit trail.
8am
Morning registration — 2 minutes
As children arrive, tap each badge against the small reader on your desk (or at the classroom door). The gateway beeps once for each successful registration. A green tick appears on your phone for each child.
// IF A BADGE DOESN'T REGISTER
Try again — hold badge flat against the reader for 2 seconds. If it still fails, the child's badge may need charging. Note it in the attendance log and inform the admin. The child can still attend class without the badge.
Day
During the school day — nothing to do
The system runs silently. Your phone stays in your pocket. You teach normally. If everything is fine, you will receive no notifications other than the morning confirmation.
// YOU WILL ONLY BE CONTACTED IF
A confirmed two-window anomaly is detected for a child in your registered class, or the school administrator sends you a manual broadcast alert.
Alert
Receiving an alert — respond within 60 seconds
Your phone vibrates with a notification. Read it: it will tell you the child's name, the alert type, and where they are. Go immediately. Tap "Acknowledged" when you reach them.
For C2 (Seizure) alerts: Speed matters. The alert fires the moment the second window confirms. Response within 90 seconds is the goal. The system will keep notifying you every 30 seconds until acknowledged — do not dismiss without reaching the child first.
3pm
End of day — badge collection
Children return badges to the charging dock at dismissal. The dock charges all badges overnight. No action needed from you unless a badge is missing — in which case, report it to the admin so it can be deactivated.
// 05 — School administrator setup & management
Setting up and managing the system
The school administrator configures the gateway, registers badges, draws the school geofence, and monitors system health. The setup takes one day. Daily management takes about 5 minutes.
A
First-time setup — draw the school boundary
Open the admin dashboard on any browser connected to the school's local network. Navigate to Settings → Geofence. Use the map to click the corners of your school compound. The system will alert whenever a child's GPS is outside this polygon for more than 30 seconds.
Tip: Make the geofence slightly inside the actual wall, not on it — GPS has a 2.5 metre margin of error. If you draw the fence on the wall, children standing near the wall may occasionally trigger C3 alerts.
B
Registering badges and assigning to children
In the dashboard, go to Devices → Register badge. Tap each new badge against the gateway reader. Assign each badge to a child's name and class. This links the device ID to the child so alerts show names, not device numbers.
// WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A BADGE IS ASSIGNED
The badge ID is stored locally on the gateway only. It is never uploaded to any external server. The link between badge ID and child name exists only within your school's local network.
C
Adding teacher phones to the alert system
Go to Staff → Add responder. Enter the teacher's phone number and assign them to a class. They will receive a verification SMS. Once confirmed, they are enrolled and will receive alerts for their class automatically.
D
Daily monitoring — the audit log
The dashboard shows all alerts fired in the last 24 hours, which teacher acknowledged each one, and the response time. This log is stored on the school's blockchain node and cannot be edited or deleted — providing a permanent record for any incident report or inspection.
For the Nigeria Safe School Initiative inspection: Export the log as a PDF from Reports → Blockchain audit export. The PDF includes tamper-proof cryptographic verification that the data has not been altered since it was written.
// 06 — When the internet fails
The system still works when the internet goes down
CEICS was specifically designed for conflict-affected areas where internet connectivity is cut during the moments it is most needed. Here is exactly what happens — and what you need to do — when connectivity is lost.
🔴 Internet cut — what happens automatically
1
The gateway detects the loss within 30 seconds and switches to standalone mode. It keeps detecting anomalies and sending alerts to teacher phones within the school's local network — no internet needed for this.
2
For alerts that need to leave the school, the system switches to LoRaWAN radio — a long-range, low-power signal that works over several kilometres even without a mobile tower.
3
If LoRaWAN is also blocked, the system activates the satellite backup. A distress signal is sent every 30 seconds via satellite — this is slower (about 1–2 minutes delay) but reaches outside even in a communication blackout.
4
Every alert generated during the offline period is stored locally and added to the blockchain ledger. When connectivity is restored, nothing is lost — the full record is automatically synchronised.
What teachers should do during an internet outage: Continue teaching normally. The alert system on your phone still works on the school's local WiFi even without internet. For urgent emergencies (C2 seizure, C1 assault), use your school's normal emergency radio or runner protocol as a parallel backup — do not wait for a notification that may be delayed by the satellite route.
Why this matters: In the Lake Chad Basin region, communications infrastructure is deliberately targeted during school attacks. CEICS was designed specifically so that the most critical detection and alerting capabilities work even when all external communications are severed. The gateway keeps working for at least 8 hours on its backup power supply.
// 07 — Privacy — your data and your child's data
What data is collected — and what is not
CEICS collects the minimum possible data and stores it in the minimum possible places. Here is exactly what happens to the data at each stage of the system.
TIER 1
📟
On the badge
Raw heartbeat, movement, GPS numbers are processed here and immediately discarded. They never leave the badge.
→
TIER 2
🖥
School gateway
Receives only a coded signal — not raw data. Confirms alert, sends notification to teacher. Stores event log locally only.
→
TIER 3
📡
Communication
Only encrypted alert tokens and AI model updates are transmitted. Never raw sensor values. Encrypted in transit.
→
TIER 4
🔐
Regional server
Receives only anonymised hashes for the blockchain. Cannot identify individual children. Never holds raw data.
In plain language: No one — not the school, not the regional server, not the researchers — can access your child's heartbeat numbers, exact movement data, or real-time location. The only things recorded are confirmed alert events (e.g. "seizure detected at 10:42am in Block B") with no raw sensor values attached.
Legal framework: CEICS is designed in compliance with Nigeria's Data Protection Act 2023 and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The geofence and alert data are stored locally at the school for 72 hours, then securely deleted. The blockchain audit log contains only cryptographic hashes — not personal data.
Parental consent: Schools are required to obtain written consent from parents or guardians before issuing a badge to a child. A consent form template is included in the admin dashboard under Documents → Parent consent form.
// 08 — For parents and guardians
What you receive as a parent
CEICS does not give parents a live tracking app. This is intentional — constant location tracking of children raises serious privacy concerns. Instead, parents receive two types of communication.
📲
Daily attendance SMS — every school day
At 8:45am each morning, you receive a simple SMS confirming your child arrived at school and their badge is active. At 3:15pm (or your school's dismissal time), you receive a confirmation that your child's badge was checked in at the gate.
// EXAMPLE SMS
CEICS: Aisha registered at Biu Model Primary 08:34. All clear. — Reply STOP to unsubscribe.
🚨
Emergency notification — only for confirmed events
If your child triggers a confirmed alert that the teacher has acknowledged, you receive an SMS within 5 minutes explaining what happened, whether your child has been attended to, and a contact number for the school.
// EXAMPLE EMERGENCY SMS
CEICS ALERT: Aisha at Biu Model Primary had a health event at 10:42. Teacher has responded. Child is being cared for. Please call 0801-XXX-XXXX. Do not panic.
What "confirmed" means: Before you are notified, a teacher has already reached your child and pressed "Acknowledged." You will never receive a false alarm notification — only events where a human has already responded.
❓
Your rights as a parent
You may withdraw your child from the CEICS programme at any time by contacting the school administrator. Your child can still attend school — the badge is optional. You may also request a copy of any alert events associated with your child's badge from the school at any time.
// 09 — Frequently asked questions
Common questions
Answers to the questions teachers, parents, and administrators ask most often.
The badge reads GPS continuously but the raw location coordinate is processed inside the badge and discarded immediately. The only location data that ever leaves the badge is when an anomaly alert fires — and even then, what is transmitted is a rough zone reference (e.g. "Block B"), not a precise coordinate. No one can pull up a minute-by-minute location history of your child.
The school administrator can flag a child as having a known medical condition in the dashboard. This does not disable seizure detection — it adds a note to every C2 alert so responding teachers know the context. The system is calibrated to a 99.1% recall rate for C2, specifically because missing a seizure is far more serious than a rare false alarm (which occurs in only 1.6% of cases at the deployed threshold).
Notify the administrator immediately. The badge can be deactivated from the dashboard within 30 seconds, which prevents any false alerts from a lost device. A replacement badge can be registered and assigned to the child within 5 minutes using the same process as first registration.
No. CEICS contains no microphones and no cameras. It reads only physical and physiological signals — movement, heart rate, oxygen level, skin response, and GPS. There is no audio or visual recording of any kind.
Only the school administrator, the class teacher (for their own class), and authorised personnel from the Nigeria Safe School Initiative with formal written access requests. The blockchain audit log cannot be modified by anyone — it can only be read. Even Anthropic, the research team, and the regional server operators cannot access individual school event records without the school's cryptographic key.
False alerts are rare — 2.1% of all alerts under normal operation. This is lower than all three systems it was compared against. When a false alert occurs, the teacher simply taps "False alarm" in the notification. This takes 3 seconds, and the event is logged as a false positive. The teacher is not penalised for investigating a false alarm — responding to every alert is the correct behaviour.
No. The electrodermal activity (EDA) sensor measures a tiny, imperceptible change in skin moisture — similar to the technology used in some smartwatches. There is no electric current, no sensation, and no discomfort. The badge simply needs to be in contact with skin — worn clipped to a collar or on a wrist lanyard.
The gateway has an 8-hour battery backup. The wearable badges last a full school day on one charge (done overnight). For schools with no reliable electricity, a solar charging dock can be used for the badges. The LoRaWAN radio operates at very low power and is specifically chosen because it works without cellular infrastructure.
Alerts can be configured in English, Hausa, Igbo, or Yoruba from the admin dashboard under Settings → Language. The SMS alert to parents uses the language set for that specific parent's profile during registration.
// 10 — Quick reference card
Print this and keep it in the classroom
A one-page reference for teachers. Print it and pin it near the classroom door.
CEICS Teacher Quick Reference
🔴 C2 Seizure: Go immediately. Child on side. Time it. Acknowledge. Call nurse if >3 min.
🟣 C1 Fall/Assault: Go to location. Assess injury. Safeguarding protocol if assault.
🟡 C3 Zone exit: Check GPS shown. Confirm with gate. Escalate if unknown location.
Deployment note: This system is currently in a simulation validation phase. Field deployment in Nigerian schools will require institutional ethics committee approval, community consultation, and compliance with the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023. The consent and training materials above represent the framework that will be used during field deployment.