Thousands of parents will soon be able to check if their children are at school thanks to a hi-tech 'Big Mother' computer system.

Mothers and fathers will also be able to view their children's grades and whether they have handed in their homework or been put on detention using the online networks.

The new technology will be officially unveiled by Oxfordshire County Council this morning.

From September, Abingdon computer company RM will begin to develop an online network for each of the 294 schools in Oxfordshire.

When the project is completed, every one of the 81,000 pupils in the county will have an e-portfolio - detailing their individual school records.

Parents will be able to use their home and office computers to view the e-portfolio and see how their children are doing and if they have skipped lessons.

The council has a history of cracking down on truancy. In 2002, Banbury woman Patricia Amoscorr became the first person in the country to be jailed for allowing her daughters to play truant. She was sentenced to 60 days.

But last night some mothers and fathers - who were not consulted about the system - remained unconvinced about its benefits.

Mum-of-two Amber Williams, from Field Avenue, Blackbird Leys, said: "I don't know if I agree with checking up on your kids. It seems a bit Big Brother-ish. It's like it's any excuse not to have parents interact with teachers."

The council said the scheme would meet Government requirments for every school to provide electronic resources for pupils and meet targets for giving parents information about their children.

Each school would decide what information went online and many had already introduced electronic registration, the council said.

The project - called the Oxfordshire Learning Platform - will only allow parents to view information on their own children and will be password-protected.

Naell Crosby-Roe, senior product manager for RM, said the networks would use the firm's Kaleidos Learning Platform technology.

He added: "The improvement will be quite vast, because it offers more than just a normal website. Parents will be able to see assessment data and things like their childrens' timetable."

RM marketing manager James Townsend said: "It's going to mean parents can be much more active in their kids' education.

"It just gives parents the information there and then, rather than having to go to school six months later to find out if there are problems."