Nowadays, technology and digitalization are the order of the day. Gone are the days when everything was done manually. In this modern world, machines, robots, computers, artificial intelligence, and software have taken the place of previously used manual methods and paper works. This new shift or trend of technology and digitalization has established firmly in every sectors – factories, stores, agriculture, engineering, health, financial institutions, and so on. Educational institutions are not left behind in this revolution.
Today many schools have migrated from using manual methods and paper works to the using of modern systems – digital and information technology – to run their schools’ operations, processes, administration and management. Schools now use electronic devices (computers, phones, tablets and so on) with specialized software like SoftDunamis Solutions Suite to do student’s admission, mark attendance, generate reports, send SMS reports and information to parents, collect fees, do wholistic accounts operations of the schools, compute, process and generate students’ assessment reports with ease, and many other things. All these processes among others are known as the digitalization of schools’ operations, administration, and management.
However, it is sad to hear that so many still use archaic methods (manual and paper-dependent methods) to run their operations. Why? It is most probably many of them are ignorant of the relative huge benefits and ease of digital methods. How beneficial is this digitalization in comparison with manual methods? In this article, we will take you through the reasons why the world should get all schools digitalized. The benefits are given below.
1. RISK MANAGEMENT OF SCHOOL RECORDS AGAINST THEFT AND ACCIDENTS
As a school owner, what would you do if all your school documents were suddenly destroyed, stolen, or accidently burnt? How would you face the school’s stakeholders? What a great doom and calamitous situation! Please do not wait for such an unforeseen time before you digitally and technologically insure your school against theft and fire accident.
With digitalization – using cloud-based software like SoftDunamis Solutions Suite – your school documents, data, and information are forever secured and protected. With such software and technology, schools can be run without worry or fear. The security assurance of digital system of school operation is one of the major reasons why schools should stop manual operations. Bear in mind that one of your most valuable assets as a school is the records and documents of students and staff. Therefore, let secure them digitally. At SoftDunamis we are here to help you.
2. EASE OF ACCESS AND RETRIEVAL OF INFORMATION
Imagine a student who graduated from your manually operated school about five years ago came now to ask for his assessment report for primary 1 class (i.e. demanding for a record that is more than ten years old), how long would it take you to retrieve such record? I guess several hours to days if at all the school still has access to such records. This is why every school needs to migrate to automated school operations system (digitalization).
With specialized educational software such as SoftDunamis, retrieval of any record, irrespective of age of its computation, is made available within seconds. Which record or report do you want to retrieve or access? Is it student assessment record, school fees payment, income, expenditure, student enrolment, student attendance, and teaching and learning log, just to mention few? Such records are always and easily available.
3. NOTIFYING AND KEEPING STAKEHOLDERS ABREAST WITH INFORMAT
School’s stakeholders include students, their parents, teaching and non-teacher staff, and school owner. As the case may require, any of these may need to be notified of anything about the school. This notification may be about inviting parents for Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) meeting, informing parents about the fee payment made, and so on. This notification is done with ease using digital system of school management. Such stakeholders receive notification such as SMS alerts, email messages, and so on.
Moreover, such stakeholders can easily log in to their portals in the system to view such classified information. For example, the school owner easily sees all the operations and transactions of the day. With digital system of school management, nobody is left in the dark.
4. COST EFFECTIVENESS
Managing a school digitally is much cheaper than using manual methods. Although money is needed to run automated system of school operations. Using manual method, you need to buy books and registers over and over. You need to spend more money to hire and pay more workers. However, with digital system, few workers can do the work of many people. For instance, digitally one worker can do the work meant for ten manual workers. Thus, less money is needed to run the institution.
With digital system, the money needed depends on the provider of the software. Some providers bill periodically – monthly subscription, annual subscription and so on. Despite their charges, it is still comparatively cost effective to use digital system to manage schools.
Coming to SoftDunamis, we provide the system at free of charge. Only what you spend money on is to buy SMS bundles for notifying your stakeholders. Even without SMS bundles, SoftDunamis Solution Suites works fine.
5. LESS EFFORT AND LESS WORKERS REQUIRED
Using software is like using machine in science. In science, machine makes work easier. Compare using fingers to open Coca Cola drink and using a bottle opener. Moreover, imagine using one hundred (100) workers to lift a mass of about 5,000 kg to the top of a structure of about 50 feet high. Compare that to using a crane with just only one worker (the driver of the crane) to do the same job. Which one is more economical and less stressful? It is obvious that mechanized system is better.
In the same vein, using software or digital system to manage school is less stressful, more economical, and requires less workers. For example, using SoftDunamis, infinitesimal effort is required to prepare and generate any academic or financial report. All you need to do get the assessment report of students for a class is to input their individual scores. The system will automatically do the rest – calculating the total score per subjects, the grade per subject, the overall score for the student and the overall relative position of the student in class, and so on. The system also generates the performance broadsheet for the class automatically.
6. EASY COMMUNICATION AND SOCIALISATION
Digital system of school management and administration makes internal communication and intercommunication easier. For example, with the inbuilt app “MyVoice” in SoftDunamis Solutions Suites, communication is made easier between staff and staff, staff and students/parents, and students and students. Chatting is possible her. A student or staff member can also write an article and publish it for all to read here.
Within “Educlen” in SoftDunamis Solutions Suites, there is an event planner or calendar to communicate any information such as meeting, extracurricular activities, public holidays and so on to all staff members.
7. SCHOOL ACCOUNTS MANAGEMENT SIMPLIFIED
Every school is an institution. By this status, it has financial accounts. Schools collect fees, collect other funds, acquire goods, make payments for the purchases and services received, and so on. All these require proper accounting.
Such accounts can be done manually. However, they are better with digital system. With latter, the process is simpler. All you need to do is to use the system to collect fees and make payments. The system does the account work for you automatically with better reports generated. For example, “Finlen Core” and “Finlen Remit” in SoftDunamis Solutions Suites do this work perfectly. Receipts for payments are also generated automatically.
8. SALES OF SCHOOL’S PRODUCTS MADE EASIER
Schools as business organizations have their own products to sell. Some schools sell books, pens, pencils, other stationeries, uniforms, foods, other provisions and so on. There is a need to know the price of each item. Likewise, there is a need to proper account for these sales. With digital system of school’s operations, a customized software for sales does this well.
With “LenMart” in SoftDunamis Solutions Suites, each school can create its supermarket store. Within the store, all products of the school will be added with the respective prices. This software helps to do your selling with accuracy without any need to memorize the price of any item. The sales account is also generated automatically.
9. SCHOOL REPORTS MADE AVAILABLE WITHIN SECONDS
One of the major tools needed by any business administrators and leaders is the reports of the operations of the organizations. In schools, they include admission or enrolment report, attendance reports, active students and staff report, inactive or left students and staff reports, school fees payment report, expenditure report, income report, sales report, student assessment performance report, and arrears report among others.
The management of the school need such reports for decision making. With digital systems like SoftDunamis Solutions Suites, these reports are made available within seconds effortlessly.
10. PRODUCTION OF STUDENTS’ ASSESSMENT RECORDS MADE EASIER AND MORE BEAUTIFUL
After class assessment tests and examinations, every parents expect to see the performance of his or her child. This calls for every school to produce the performance record. For years, this has been done manually. This manual method is very an energy-sapping and time-consuming task.
Contrarily, with digital system, this is done with ease. Here you do not need to do any calculation, the system does it for you. The system does everything, which include the designing. The final work is exquisite. “assesScore” in SoftDunamis Solutions Suites does this excellently. It evens add student’s picture to the report sheet. Moreover, it also generates performance comprehensive broadsheet containing the actual and relative performances all students in each class.
11. STAFF’S MONITORING AND APPRAISAL MADE MORE OBJECTIVE AND ACCURATE
Generally, most people don’t do what is expected but what is inspected. With digital system of managing schools’ operations, staff’s performances are directly and indirectly measured. Using software can help to identify staff members who are prompt in their operations and those who lag or are slack.
Moreover, using software helps to measure the level of accuracy and carefulness of staff by how often they make mistakes in their operations.
Likewise, with the aid of digital system, staff punctuality to work can also be measured.
With SoftDunamis Solutions Suites, these and more are possible. Besides, “TAL Log” helps to measure the volume of teaching delivered, number of classwork and number of homework given by a teacher with a period of time.
The consequence of using this digital system is that it puts all staff members on their toes to work and deliver better they know that all eyes are on their operations, measuring and appraising their performances objectively rather than subjectively.
12. ACCESS TO SCHOOL’S RECORDS, PROGRESSES, OPERATIONS ANYTIME AND ANYWHERE
Unhindered access to my data and records is one of my best reasons to desire digital system for anything I do. This is also the desire of many schools’ owners and leaders. With digital system using online real-time information system you can view your school data anywhere you are in the world and at any time you like.
This is one of the reasons why every school should migrate from manual method to online digital system. Many times, owners, head teachers, or administrators of schools are not within their schools or are not in towns where their schools are located, yet their desire to view the current operations, transactions, and status of the schools. With online real-time digital system, they see everything live as they occur or are inputted. Being away from the school is never a barrier to know what is happening in the school for long as the school is using school management system like SoftDunamis Solutions Suites.
13. FRAUD PREVENTION AND CONTROL
As a school’s owner or leader, if you desire to check or prevent frauds in your school, it is imperative for your school to use digital information system to manage your school’s operations. With such system, every work or operation is bare – no hiding place for any shady deal.
For instance, every money collected is accurately recorded. Total cash collected on the system at the end of the day must tally with available physical cash at hand.
14. EASE OF RECORD EDITING AND UPDATING
Manual records are static. It requires extra efforts to edit (that is, to change) them. Likewise, to update (that is, to renew) them, you need to create start the work afresh. This requires extra effort.
However, using digital system management, editing and updating of records are done without any stress.
15. SIMPLE TO USE AND FREE OF ERROR OF COMPUTATION
Do you know why many people and organizations like digital systems? They do so because of the simplicity and ease to use.
Digital system does not need your expertise on the field but your ability to read and write. You do not need to be a mathematics genius to do powerful calculation with the system. All you have to do is to key in your data, while the system does the accurate computation for you.
Likewise, you do need to be an accountant in order to do financial work on the system; the system takes care of that for you.
Moreover, you do not need to have a certificate or diploma in education in order to handle educational related work on the system; the system takes care of that for you. What do you call this? It is very simple and easy to you. Everyone who can read and write can operate it.
Another importance benefit of digital system of management is that it is free of computation error. Once your inputted data is correct, the system will give you a correct output. Unlike manual methods, many times the workers make plenty mistakes while computing the data since humans are fallible.
WRAP UP
Thanks for travelling with us to see how beneficial it is to use digital system to manage schools. The benefits are priceless. Because of these benefits we are advocating that every school should migrate from manual methods to digital system of school’s operations, management, and administration. If you do, you will one day be grateful that you heed our advice.
You can start today. Just contact us at SoftDunamis via WhatsApp (+2348147177302). Remember that SoftDunamis is free for all. You only pay just a paltry sum of money as registration fee and nothing more – no periodic subscription to be paid thereafter. However, you may need to buy SMS bundle to send SMS to your customers if your operations demand. Contact us now to help you with the registration. Alternatively, you can personally do the registration by clicking REGISTER NOW. Let’s start today. Thanks.