The days of taking attendance and entering examination scores into broadsheets manually may be over for teachers, thanks to a software developed by Applied Services (APPSERV), an IT solutions firm that manages the Lagos State Government Education Management System (LASGEMS).
The new software application allows teachers to generate e-report cards and do a variety of other administrative tasks online.
APPSERVE organised a train-the-trainers workshop for private school teachers on how to use the application last week at the Martinos event centre located in the Central Business District (CBD), Alausa, Lagos.
LASGEMS was created in 2005 to generate a database of primary and secondary schools (both public and private), teachers, bio-data and school records of pupils as well as their parents to provide government with the data to plan. The new initiative is expected to boost the effectiveness of the LASGEMS database.
In an interview with APPSERV Managing Director, Mr Yomi Erogbogbo, during the training of teachers from Education District I, he said with the application, teachers would do away with manual registers, input their examination records faster, and get the results collated easier.
He explained that many teachers can input scores at the same time; and once the result is ready, it can be printed, emailed to parents or the summary sent by SMS.
Erogbogbo said: “It is now fully computerised i.e. the school attendance, submission of scores are now done online whereby schools can do away with their manual registers. And the system inputs all the scores and produces all the reports automatically. It has automated the process for producing the end of term report cards; the broadsheet; school attendance issues; and they can communicate with parents online by email and text messages.
“It is of high value to parents. If your report card cannot be found; if it is lost, schools can always reproduce it. It is a permanent lifetime record.”
After last week’s workshop, Erogbogbo said participants are expected to train teachers and school managers in their various schools. He said APPSERV has provided dedicated servers for training and urged the teachers to take advantage of them.
Save for providing internet access for teachers to input data using computers or internet-enabled phones, Erogbogbo said migrating their school records online would not cost schools so much to do.
“Schools just need internet connectivity. You can use your phone or laptop. Anybody, who is a school teacher, anybody who owns a school, if you have a private school and you do not have a laptop, I do not think such person is serious about business. What is the cost of internet bundle? Not that you are only using it for LASGEMS; it is your existing resources you are using. If there is advancement in technology and you cannot apply it to improve yourself, it is a problem,” he said.
Over 100 teachers from private schools in Education District I attended the training. While some teachers commended the initiative, others, particularly those whose schools have not integrated the use of technology into administration, complained about the process being tedious.
For instance, while Mr Femi Aborisade a Mathematics teacher at Adegoke High School, Agege, said he likes the use of technology to generate e-report cards, he complained that it is not feasible to use the online platform to mark attendance.
“When you talk of manual, it is still better because it is what we do everyday – taking attendance. However, it wont be easy going online to record attendance between classes. The report card part is okay. What I like mostly about that is getting it done and sending it to parents. It is an advancement of technology,” he said.
On the contrary, Mrs Olabisi Olaleye of Taqwa Private Schools, Ifako, Agege, described the initiative as laudable. She said her school uses a similar platform, which needs to be upgraded with some things she learnt from the workshop.
“We have a database where we manage all students. So, it is just that when you go out you learn more. With this one, I have learnt what you have to do to update on our own system. What I just want to implore private schools is that they should adopt it because it is a good thing that will bring a lot of relief to teachers. It will relief teachers of the stress of writing, which consumes most of their time and affects teaching and learning,” she said.
