Building agile institutions with a student information system

How a student information system can revolutionize your school

With student populations in our schools growing in size and diversity, the processes that helped manage them have rapidly become outmoded. Expecting to know the details of every student in your school off the top of your head is no longer a feasible ask. Even well into the academic year when most teachers and administrators feel confident in their knowledge about their classrooms, mistakes can be made with an ever-expanding student body. Human memory is fallible, and relying on it to recall student details is unreliable at best and dangerous at worst.

A student information system help addresses these issues. But what are they, exactly? Simply put, student information systems are management information systems that are dedicated to managing student records for educational institutions. They are a one-stop shop for students, teachers, administrators, and parents alike to store, maintain, and manage all sorts of student-related data. Student information systems help not just with record maintenance but also decision making that affects day to day schooling.

Here are a few ways they do that:

1. Maintain vast quantities of student-related information

A robust student information system can really make an administrator’s day markedly less stressful. These platforms help organise all types of student information – from biographical, to classroom related, to financial and administrative records. Administrators are able to nimbly store and quickly access the information they require, which makes issues – such as issuing an attested marks card for sending tuition payment reminders – that much easier to address. Educational administration becomes much smoother with a properly managed student information system.

2. Improve student communications

A student information system can make schools more accessible. From managing the admissions process to a dashboard that securely and confidentially publishes grades and exam results for each student, a student information system helps improve communication between pupils and their schools. An educational institution can often feel like an overwhelmingly impersonal entity and a pain in the neck to deal with when it comes to accessing information. A good student information system helps mitigates these systemic issues.

3. Keep track of student life cycles

A student information system can often seem like a recording of the student’s lifetime at an institution. Right from admissions to beyond graduation, a student information system is maintaining an unobtrusive record of every student’s data in a secure platform. Potential students are on-boarded during the admissions process and are dovetailed into the system via online enrollment and class schedules once they are admitted. As a current student, class schedules, absentee records, and a record of student communications are maintained. Even after graduation, a student information system handles class grades and qualifying examinations records that they might mean when applying for higher education or a job. A student information system is a reflection of a student’s lifetime at their school.

4. Provide increased support to parents

A comprehensive student information system is not a mere maintainer of records for an educational institution. Parents of students have access to information that helps them manage their child’s educational lives more easily, in addition to also providing them support in something as small as managing the logistics of ensuring they have a smooth schooling experience. From interfacing with accreditation boards to ensure all official certification comes through smoothly upon graduation to linking up with transport and canteen services that ensure that a student’s safety and health is being looked after, a student information system provides what parents need the most to reassure them that they are doing the best they can be their child – peace of mind.