Schools sometimes battle with the challenges of lost documents, wasteful spending and energy lost in the unnecessary. Do you want to save money, get work done faster and anywhere, as well as reduce stress? School management systems (SMS) are readily available on various platforms. Some can go as low as 35,000 NGN per term.

What are School Management Systems?

School Management Systems offer schools a cost-efficient management solution to help them automate activities that seems to be time consuming and expensive. They try to tackle common educational issues ranging from poor reading culture, cultural bastardization, poor peer communion and relationship and wastage of resources and sources.

Why are School Management Systems Important?

The objective of any School Management System is to give schools a cost-efficient management solution to help them automate activities that seem to be time consuming and expensive.

In schools, the solution deals with challenges such as; poor student and staff management, losing track of school activities, inadequate record-keeping, expensive exam management and recording, poor central storage and a non-centralized model of data dissemination and communication among others.
We do this by automating as many school tasks as possible and easing the workload of school management, staff, students and/or parents.

The Content of a Standard School Management System

A School Management System should be dynamic, responsive, multi-tasking and easy to customise. It is important to be a cloud-based software to manage report cards, examinations, assignments, classroom forums and discussions, and school blogs. It should also feature some extra-curricular functions educational game modules, learning modules, as well as staff and student diary modules.

In a nutshell, it should be able to tackle the following:

• Reduced paper works, marking and recording
• Extensive staff, students and/or parents management
• Access the software from anywhere at anytime
• No worrying about backups or data loss
• One central place everyone can log into to work

The Challenges of Most School Management Systems

About 80% of the challenges faced in running a school portal are a result of the running by the schools. This can be due to the technological know-how of the system to poor network coverage. The remaining 20% is a result of bugs due to upgrades or the server.

Here are some major challenges most schools tend to face when using a School Management System:

• Poor Network Coverage: this can be due to poor weather or location from the mast. The best thing to do in other to avoid this is to get a good suggestion on what network works better in your area before acquiring a router or Wi-Fi
• Lack of Technological Knowhow: no matter how simple a system may look, it still needs the input of the designers. All users (students, parents, teachers and other staff) should be educated on how the system works and how to perform a task or two.
• Negligence: this is sometimes seen among users. Most school management systems are smart. They tend to notify a user of an error which they sometimes tend to ignore. Neglecting a stitch in time may wreck the entire attire. It is important to notify the admin of any error messages received to deal with any IT related issues.
• Inadequate IT gadgets: school management solutions are effective when schools are adequately equipped with the required amount of systems. The need for computers is of essence to tackle this challenge. In most cases, systems are made to support mobile versions to help in meeting this need. That leads us to the next challenge of School Management Systems, responsiveness.
• Responsiveness of the Solution: a school management system should be built to support mobile, tablets, laptops and desktops. In addition, they should equally support most operating systems and web browsers. In many cases, these solutions may lack the power to meet all these requirements. This is a challenge most schools may face when subscribed to a solution of their choice.
• Server or Bandwidth Issues: this may be due to the overloading of users running on the server at the same time. A system that allows 100 users at a time will not work properly when about 120 are on the system. It is better to opt for a program that may cover up for the expected users on the system.
• Changes and Bugs: sometimes, bugs may be seen in a system due to the user’s input. For instance, when you submit a form multiple times when running on low internet, the data may be stored in the system several times. Sometimes, it may be due to some upgrades or some other issues in the system.

Some School Management Solutions in Nigeria

Here are some examples of School Management Solutions in Nigeria.

• School Software Pro: School Software Pro is All-in-One school management software in Nigeria with Mobile App for Primary, Secondary, Colleges, Polytechnics and universities with 57+ useful features to Teach, Learn, Examine and Manage. www.schoolsoftware.com.ng

• Educare: Educare is a School Management Software driven by the same passion as educators. It caters to K12 schools by automating their academic and administrative processes. Every day we make our platform, customer service, communications, and process better. www.educare.school

• Schoolcube: Schoolcube information management system aids schools to solve the problems of parent-student-teacher interaction, resource optimization, infrastructure, security and stability. www.schoolcube.net

• SchoolShell: SchoolShell is a holistic educational app that enhances learning for students, facilitates school administration as the best school management software for schools and keeps parents in the loop of their ward’s learning process. www.schoolshell.com

• SchooLit: SchooLit is a cloud-based school management solution. It assists schools with time management and synchronised task management. This software solution runs for all school categories. www.schoolit.com.ng

Folklight School Management Portal

The need for school management systems is on the rise as most schools are finding it easy and cost-efficient to run about 45% of their activities on the cloud. Folklight Studios have equally created a solution to help schools go about automating their school activities as low as 30,000 NGN per term. Click here to learn more.

Folklight Studios is a software enterprise that provides business solutions to challenges in the day-to-day running of a school.

Contact Us today to enrol your school on our portal.