Parents would be able to use the internet to track their child’s every move at school, under government plans to be announced today.

Each pupil’s attendance, behaviour and academic performance will be put online by 2012, allowing parents to check their progress daily. Schools are even being encouraged to use text messaging or video-conferencing to communicate.

The idea could end parents’ evenings, with teachers instead providing daily updates on “real-time” reporting systems. Schools could also monitor how often parents checked their child’s progress.

Parents’ groups said that the online updates could devalue the impact of the annual school report, and voiced concerns about the security of sensitive information. Teachers’ leaders said that it could add to workloads. Even the Government admitted that parents could be swamped with data if schools were not sufficiently selective. However, parents who find it hard to get detailed information about their child are likely to welcome the development.

Jim Knight, the Schools Minister, is speaking today at BETT, formerly British Education and Training Technology, the world’s largest educational technology event, in Olympia, West London. He will say that all secondary schools should have the system by 2010, and all primary schools by 2012.

“All parents will get regular electronic reports on their children’s progress in future,” he will say.

“Real-time reporting means parents will be able to access updated information on children’s achievement, progress, attendance, behaviour and special needs, whenever they want – using secure online systems. Other systems could include text alert systems or video conferencing.”

Mr Knight will say that the new technology will not replace school reports or parents’ evenings and should not add to staff workloads.

Sophisticated software designed for schools is already being used successfully, with information such as attendance and attainment added to schools’ databases by teachers. This would be made available to parents.

However, the National Union of Teachers said that it would treat Mr Knight’s claims with caution. “Until a proper, independently evaluated pilot happens, Mr Knight cannot claim that there will be no increase in workload,” it said.

Margaret Morrissey, of the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations, said that e-mail updates from teachers to parents sometimes contained little information about the individual pupil. She said: “We need to be cautious about information sent around everywhere. It puts pressure on parents to receive them, and a lot don’t have the ability. Parents will be asking if this is the end to the annual report, although some will prefer frequent updates, if they have the time.”

The Department for Children, Schools and Families said: “There is a danger that parents may feel swamped by this information. It has to be manageable for schools, but also meaning-ful for parents.”

Mr Knight will announce that £30 million will be spent over the next three years on computers and broad-band internet access for families on low incomes. “We have to find a way to make access universal. We know from schools around the country that if families are going to be involved in their children’s education really effectively, they need a good, two-way flow of information – a channel which is more efficient and more frequent than a once-a-year written report, or a letter home when there is a problem or something to celebrate.

“All these plans which depend on technology risk widening the gap between the have and the have-nots – unless we can make the technology available to all. The so-called ‘digital divide’ cannot be allowed to reinforce social and academic divisions.”

Some schools are already making increasing use of technology, by using fingerprint information. The Deanes School in Benfleet, Essex, was criticised yesterday for scanning pupils’ fingerprints when they buy lunch, as part of a cashless catering system.

Action on Rights for Children said: “We have a number of concerns about the use of children’s fingerprints. They should not be used unnecessarily for such everyday things as buying their dinner at school or taking out a library book or registering in the morning.”

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