Innovation: Former KIU Student Develops School Management System to avoid Physical Contact
Yassin Sokuton, a former student of Computer Science at Kampala International University (KIU) has developed a School Management System (SMS) dubbed ‘My School’, a Web based application he says will not only ease learning but also help in the fight against COVID-19 by avoiding physical contact between teachers, students and parents.
Sokuton says the system manages day to day school activities, connects entire school operations, using the web as key communication tool and simplifies day to day operational responsibilities, giving staff more time with students and staff information starting from Elementary (Nursery), Primary, Secondary, Tertiary and University learning institutions.
Finalists in Education institutions are expected to return to school this week, but parents and other outsiders have been banned from visiting them, something Sokuton says is eased with this application since it is easy to connect between the student, teachers and parents.
In an interview with the Chimpreports, Sokuton said the system in addition to easing schooling also aims to keep parents in touch.
“Through this system, a parent does not need to come to school to get admission for his or her child but what he needs to do, is to login and access all the school services online. If there is need for communication between a parent and the school, the application eases it,” he noted.
“SMS helps Administrators/Head teachers to get the most accurate information to make more effective decisions. Administrators and teachers gain time saving administrative adding tools, parents gain immediate access to their children’s grades, fees balance and students can track their own progress,” he said
“It automates various scheduling activities of school and optimizes the use of premium resources. Concerned authorities can now easily and seamlessly use the system to create timetables, generate report, admit, library cards and fee invoices, saving a time consuming and tedious work.”
He said that the system helps Teachers to complete grades, marks, and track student’s attendance, input class notes, create lesson plans and detailed reports and communicate with other staff members, students, and parents all via e-mail and internet messaging system.
He noted that it also helps Students to access assignments and tests, and view attendance records, grades, report cards, and progress reports all online. They also can communicate through mail and forums with teachers and other students online.
“The system is equipped with features that enables it to generate schedules, timetable, Admission Cards and Fee Invoices in minutes and to retrieve attendance records, grade checks, report, library cards, transcripts, and form letters in just a few clicks,” he said
The app he says was designed in PHP and the powerful MYSQL database backend.
“To implement My School application, schools do not need expensive hardware and software, they just need an internet connection, desktops and smartphones running android 4.3.1 to latest. This system works as a centralized database and application that schools can easily access the system from anywhere based on the login credentials,”
Currently such applications are being used in Universities like the ERP system at the Islamic University in Uganda (IUIU).
To differ from this, Sokuton said that his modified system does not require a student to visit any office (primary and High School) or Faculty for (Universities & Institution to pick their Examination Cards or visiting the notice board to see what is happening as everything is posted and students see from their smart phones.
According to Sokuton, the system is run by these groups in a school structure: Administrator, teacher, Accountant, Librarian, Transport and Parent/Student with over 25 features.
Major features of the System according to Sokuton;
1 Administrator
Multi-School Management: It can manage multiple sister schools, where the proprietor assign administrators and classes to each school to manage individual school.
Assign School Admins and Staff: Multi-School administrator assign an administrator to a school. The school administrator can create any number of staff with roles to manage the school.
Session Management: it can keep students records from time to time for example; the number of students in each term, minutes in different meetings and all other previous sessions.
Roles and Permissions: Create custom roles like teacher, accountant and assign them necessary permissions as per the role so they are restricted to the management of school entities assigned to them.
Inquiries Management: it displays inquiry form for a school in a page using short code. It also receives inquiries school-wise, add next follow up date and notes for the inquiry.
Automatic Notifications via Email, SMS and Custom Templates: Send an SMS and email notifications to students at the time of new admissions, Fees Invoice Generation and Payment Receipts Generation. SMS providers include; Nexmo, Twilio, MsgClub, SMS Striker and Msg91 SMS, TextLocal.
- Teachers
Manage Classes and Sections: Administrators can create classes and assign them to schools. With each class, there can be multiple class sections.
Student Management: School admins and staff with necessary permissions can new admissions to school by assigning them admission number, class, section and roll number. Also, for each student record in a session, a new enrollment number is generated automatically.
Student Promotion: It promotes students to a new class for a new session. This creates a new enrollment of a student for the next session.
Student Transfer: Transfer student from one school to another. This also keep track of students transferred to and transferred from the school.
Student Attendance: Take the daily attendance of students. Print the attendance sheet of a class. Students can also view their attendance report in dashboard.
Noticeboard Widget: It has a noticeboard widget that displays notices to the widget section of your website. Here, you can change the number of notices, widget height, and width to incorporate the design of your website.
Distribute Study Materials: School staff with the necessary permission can add study materials of classes. These study materials will show up on the student dashboard section, allowing them to download and view the study materials.
Students Home Works: School staff and teachers with the necessary permission can add Home Works of classes. These Home Works will show up on the student dashboard section and students get the notification on SMS, Home Works SMS details can be sent on Parents and students Mobile
- Accounting officer
Accounting Management: This includes fee invoice generation, fee payment collection, income management and expense management.
Generate Fee Invoices: Select students from classes and generate fees invoices in bulk or for a single student. This also supports partial payment collection or one-time payment collection.
Fees Collection Form: Display fees collection form on a page using a short code which allows students to search their names and view pending fee invoices. Students can pay their fees by using a payment method.
Payments via Stripe, Razorpay, and Pesapal: Fee payment can be done by using Stripe or Razorpay, Pesapal payment gateway.
Print Fees Invoice and Payment Receipt: After adding a fee invoice, it supports the printing of fee invoices. Also, after making a payment, students or staff can print the payment receipt.
Manage Expense and Income: Add expense categories and income categories. Add expense and income date wise for a school.
- Examination Officer
Exams Management: Create exam, add exam papers, exam center, timings, date and room number for single class or multiple classes.
Publish Exam Time Table: Option to publish exam time table which will show up on student dashboard or you can use the short code to display exam time table on a particular page of your website.
Generate Admit Cards: For each exam, generate admit cards for students. Also, publish the admit cards which students can download from student dashboard section.
- Students
Parents/Student Dashboard: on the student’s dashboard, students can view their fees reports, admission details, Identity Card, paying fees balance using a suitable payment method.
Student Dashboard: In the student dashboard, students can view noticeboard, print their ID cards, view pending fee invoices, make payments and view their payment history. Also, they can download study materials, exam time table, admit cards and much more.
Student Login Widget and Short-code: The student login form can be displayed on the page via short code and also you can place log.
The post Innovation: Former KIU Student Develops School Management System to avoid Physical Contact first appeared on ChimpReports.