School Management System, as indicated by the term, is software that helps schools organise and manage their daily tasks efficiently. Whether it is in relation to monitoring students, keeping up-to-date with parents, or reviewing teachers or administrators, a School Management System is meant to make everything easy. The type of system most suitable varies from the kind of school. This is because the requirements of K12 schools are far different from colleges or universities. The best part about adopting such a system is that it gives schools the flexibility to work either at school or from a remote location. With COVID-19, the world has changed the education system for institutions and, therefore, has required administrators to reconsider the traditional in-person system. Thus, utilising a digital solution to merge all departments to a central location means that schools do not have to halt education completely for uncertain durations for future events.
10 Software Modules You Need in Your School Management System
While the right School Management System will vary according to the school, all schools have a list of processes that are the same. From attendance, assessments, Human Resources and finance, here are ten software modules that need to be implemented in every school management system. Having these will help a school to reduce their overall workload, reduce finances, enhance data security and save the time of students and teachers.
Student Management Module
As school caters to a student’s personal development, the student management module must be in any School Management System. It should have the student’s details, including their formal picture, family information, emergency contacts, health records and demographic details. At the end of a student’s school journey, this module should represent a person’s entire school career. From having a record of their academic grades and prizes won to noting any leadership positions held and any extracurricular activities a student was involved in, the administration should be able to get a well-rounded perspective of the student at a glance. Administrators would access this module to consider whether financial payments are made or to create IDs for the student. On the other hand, teachers can access it to evaluate a student’s overall academic growth and individually assess which subjects a student needs help in.
Online Registration Management / Admission Management Module
Every year a student is required to register or renew their admission. For every exam, students are once again required to register for assessments. This can be a tedious process both for students and the administration. Students have to fill a form by hand, ensuring no mistakes are made and where the approval or proof of documents is required that they have been duly inserted. The administration will have to read through different handwriting, manually insert it into the system, and send an approval or rejection letter within a few weeks. All the hassle and unnecessary effort wasted on repetitive tasks can be avoided if registration is done online. Issues concerning spelling errors or legibility can therefore be avoided. Students who do not comply with specific requirements can easily be filtered out of the system. The administration can efficiently process exam admission forms and issue the notice promptly. Where a student requires their leaving or character certificate or transcripts, it can also be requested online via this. In essence, the school administration and its students complete a range of tasks efficiently.
Attendance Management Module
Attendance at classes is generally a mandatory requirement. Through attendance, teachers and the school can assess whether pupils are learning property. It is also a method to track the attendance of teachers who, as employees, must fulfil their responsibilities. Some schools require attendance only when the students enter the premises, whereas others mark it for each class. Either of these methods can be implemented through an attendance management module. Data gathered through attendance is also used to generate reports to assess the percentage of active students in a specific grade, subject, month or year. Many School Management System use a biometric tracking system, ensuring that accurate records for attendance are taken.
Exam and Result Management Module
Whether you have in-person exams or online exams, this module remains relevant. In an in-person setting, this module becomes essential for making report cards. By simply inserting each student’s marks, report cards can be automatically generated and directly shared with students and parents online. This way, parents are guaranteed to be informed of their child’s actual academic performance each term whilst reducing the need to print cards on paper. Where assessments are held online, in addition to the above features, this module also allows the institute to keep timed evaluations in the form of problem, essay, and mathematical questions. Suppose the institute requires the assessments to be proctored further and a plagiarism check be carried out. In that case, this feature can also be included to ensure that the academic integrity of the school/institute is upheld.
Teacher Information and Payroll Management Module
Teachers are the heart of every education system since they plant the seeds for a child’s development. The administrative responsibilities such as marking attendance and papers and inserting marks must be made easier. In this regard, teachers should be able to review their students’ work easier and keep track of their course schedules. At the same time, because teachers are also employees, all of their relevant information needs to be recorded. This includes personal information, academic qualifications, salary details, employment history and more. As this database ensures teachers are executing their job role, the administration can easily assess whether they attend their relevant classes and receive feedback on their teaching styles from their students. This helps the school to identify any issues related to their teaching methods and provide training to teachers where required.
School Fee Management Module
The finance module of a school has many roles. It makes the payment of salaries to employees far easier by automating transactions, ensuring that the staff receives their due on time every month. It moreover helps parents to keep track of impending fees easily. All this will be noted in the student’s profile, ensuring no misunderstandings or misconceptions about the amount required to pay are made. Even if parents do not visit the student portal, they will receive an auto-generated fee receipt on paper or an alert via phone and can choose to pay online. A school may also incur expenses for extracurricular activities or maintenance. All this will be recorded, and the management can use reports generated through the system to make critical financial decisions.
Transport Management Module
Schools may provide transport to their staff and students for educational field trips or extracurricular activities. Modules of this kind infuse RFID technology to track vehicles in real-time. This helps parents and the administration track the student’s whereabouts, assuring the safety of all their students. Specific School Management System can send out alerts to parents when there is increased traffic or any unforeseen incidents that result in the students getting late to return to the school premises. They can also have instant contact with the driver or conductor of the vehicle as their details are shared through the system.
Course Management Module
Any material used during class in the form of presentations or handouts is shared through this module. Hence, uploading content to this in advance or after the lesson helps students to prepare for it in advance or revise after. The curriculum/course management has information regarding every subject a student learns. It ideally provides the syllabus at the start of the year, includes the timetable for each subject and is an easy way for a student to keep track of each course. From noting impending assignment deadlines to accessing extra reading material, this module is an important feature of a School Management System.
Timetable Management Module
While the curriculum/course management module helps students stay on top of the timetable for a specific course, the timetable management module is meant to make the timetable for your entire day easier. On a typical day, a student has classes for more than one subject. Having a copy of all classes is easier than referring to individual course pages. Hence, having this module removes uncertainty regarding the timetable. This also makes it easy for teachers to create a timetable. Generally, enormous time is spent discussing slots that each teacher is free. However, through this module, teachers can simply log in to their preferences and finalise the timetable faster.
Resource Management Module
While certain schools prefer to divide this module into library and inventory management, some choose to categorise it under one module. Hence, this module helps the management and administration monitor assets, stocks and stationery required for school. It is a significant advantage for librarians who use it to ensure that the latest books are available and note down the books that are being borrowed. The system also can recommend material based on the ones students refer to in the e-library.
Get Through Your School Administrative Tasks More Efficiently
The world has long passed from schools or colleges manually filing records of their students, employees, finances and other information. Educational institutes can now manage their resources more efficiently and cater to the needs of their students by getting through the daily administrative tasks more efficiently. Cut down valuable time and strategise better ways to help your students become future leaders in the country.
