Tracking child’s progress by click of a button

By MACHARIA KAMAU and FREDRICK OBURA

Imagine tracking your child’s progress in school — from class attendance, teachers’ assessments, grades and discipline record — then giving feedback from the comfort of your home.

If your busy schedule has kept you from interacting with your child’s teacher and keeping up with their performance then you will be glad to know that a new computer management system can solve your problem.

A local software developer has come up with a management system that allows teachers and parents to interact online. The portal is a confidential and secure website where parents or guardians can access updated information about their child’s school schedule, syllabus, attendance, and grades online. It enables primary and secondary schools manage student and teacher affairs from lesson plans and timetables to class attendance list and examination results effectively.

Working in a similar way to Facebook, it allows teachers to post examination results and make comments on students’ performance and behaviour, which parents can access, online and even post comments to the teachers. "The programme opens up communication channels in the school community. It allows parents to have real time interaction with teachers and other staff, stay up to date with their child’s performance and discipline," says Gilbert Wambugu, a software developer with local technology firm Cygnus, which created the software.

"Parents are given unique login IDs and passwords that allows them to view their child’s data only and leave a message for the teachers and school administrators."

Security features

He says the system has adequate security features to prevent manipulation of data. A parent, for instance, cannot view other children’s data while a teacher has a time frame in which to revise data that they post then it cannot be altered. "We have used high level security features, akin to what is used in banking or money transfer systems," he says.

If a student is absent from class or fails a test, it will reflect in the system and cannot be doctored unlike the quarterly report cards that students bring home, he explains.

Cygnus has developed a standard system with features that are common in most schools but Wambugu says it can be customised to fit the needs of a particular institution. For instance, Starehe Boys Center uses the system to manage students data including ranking performance and monitoring attendants.

The system automatically cre availability of teachers and resources like laboratories. "The system can significantly reduce a teacher’s workload. Many teachers spend a lot of time, which could be spent with students or doing research, repairing and managing timetables ," he says.

And while it sounds like the right system to achieve efficient managment, many schools are reluctant to take it up.

"The reluctance is not unique to the software but many of the programmes that have been developed locally. Everybody wants to know where it has worked before and are skeptical when they hear it is locally made," said Wambugu.

He decries the lack of interest among Government agencies to facilitate production of such programmes.

"At different stages of developing the system we approached the Kenya ICT Board and the Ministry of Education to get their input, something that would enhance the programme but all were non-receptive," he says.

select schools

He says this is in contrast to many developed countries where Governments are keen on ICT and constantly engage with stakeholders.

"In Rwanda, for instance, the Government is very receptive to such ideas and is keen on facilitating software developers. Through our partners in the country, we have approached the government and they have shown great interest.

It costs Sh24, 000 per year to manage the portal.

To increase uptake among public schools, Wambugu said Cygnus are offer the service to select public schools 10 per cent of the initial price or Sh2,400.