School Management Software | 2020 has been tough but despite of the pandemic’s drastic impact on the economy and how people lived, it is amazing how it also played a major role in accelerating digital innovations. In schools, for instance, while covid-19 was dominating the world, digital school management solutions have surprisingly greatly helped in keeping up the quality of education albeit remotely done. Various operations have been streamlined with the help of a reliable school management software which has served as a silver lining amid the tough times. And now that the world is slowly getting back to normal, schools are encouraged to make the most of the digital age and let the system leverage the power of automation to lessen costs, paperwork, and more.
What is School Management Software and how can it benefit the school and the students?
Also referred to as a school management system or school/student information system, school management software is a type of desktop or cloud-based application that automates various school processes including student registration and record-keeping, student attendance and performance tracking, teacher evaluation, and more.
Manual processes are undeniably hard to detach from especially if the school is used to them. But adapting digital solutions, albeit coming with a cost, is going to yield a long-lasting positive impact on the school’s overall management performance.
Automating a school workflow by utilizing a reliable school management software will not only motivate faculty and staff but will benefit the students as well. Here is how such a digital solution can help:
- It helps keep track of the attendance of the students.
When it comes to monitoring the attendance of the students, what used to be a purely manual, time-consuming process can now be done with a few clicks or taps. The software lets teachers create a list of students per class and record their students’ attendance easily. Depending on the setup, the software can assist in informing the parents whenever their kids are not present.
- It helps manage assignments and projects.
The system, at the core, streamlines student-related operations to help them monitor their performances better, including their projects and assignments. It lets them view the assignments that their teachers posted, and upload their works within the permitted period through the portal. Meanwhile, old documents will still be viewable for their reference.
Teachers, on the other hand, will easily be able to track which students still have not submitted their assignments with the help of filters on the listings.
- It features access to student records, including gradebooks, report cards, and transcripts.
Back in the day, students and parents would need to physically visit the school for their report cards. Now, although face-to-face classes are back, records retrieval is going to be way more convenient with the help of the software.
A good school management software lets students monitor their progress by making their grades and report cards accessible including the old ones, whenever ready. Data presentations will also help them identify which subjects they have to study harder and which ones are yielding great results.
Parents can monitor too!
Nowadays, most school management systems also invite parents to engage more in monitoring their kids’ performances by giving them an online access to their kids’ records. Through this feature, parents will be able to obtain real-time information, e.g. gradebooks, report cards, and transcripts whenever they want without having to be at school physically.
- It features emailing and messaging systems that teachers, students, and their parents can use to easily communicate.
It is imperative to maintain an effective communication ground for admins, teachers, students, and parents to ensure that announcements will not be missed and important notifications are delivered. This is where the software’s emailing and messaging feature comes in handy. It lets teachers and parents discuss school programs and their kids’ performances up close.
- It helps save time for teachers, students, and parents.
Manually attending to school processes takes many hours to accomplish. This is what school information systems are mainly designed to address. The cloud-based software will significantly improve how things are done. As long as students and parents are connected to the web, accessing and communicating information will not be a problem.
- It helps schools save money.
While school information systems come with quite a hefty price tag, the return of investment is guaranteed as employees will be able to maximize their productivity out of the time they were able to save. The time and hassle that can be saved from going digital can be equated to savings as schools are now able to free up other valuable resources, e.g. papers, printed forms, etc.
- It helps boost the morale of employees.
As the tedious works are eliminated, teachers can finally focus more on strategic tasks that will help enhance their performance and improve the quality of education the school offers in the long run.
One of the challenges automations face is when confidential data gets into the wrong hands, resulting in fraud or compromised data privacy. Thus, before sealing the deal with the software company you are eyeing on, it is important to make sure that this company upholds and guarantees data protection and security.
As a trusted school information software provider, the company must be able to keep its system secured from possible data breaches in order to protect the privacy of teachers and students. The system’s security implementations should be established enough against any unauthorized access.
There is a plethora of software providers you can find in the market these days and each of them will brag about their beneficial school management software features. But alongside that, do not forget to ask about the scope of the after-deployment support. As the software will be handling crucial processes to keep the school running, it is imperative to have timely and reliable supports to ensure zero downtime. So, make sure to have a guided buying decision. Gather your options first and do a brief comparison before signing for a subscription.
