Future ​Ready: ​The ​Role ​of ​Tomorrow’s School ERP

Anticipating tomorrow’s needs today for your school ERP

Over the last two weeks, we have focused on a few problems a robust school ERP can solve for you and the features to look for when choosing the right school ERP for your specific institution. These problems and solutions have been comprehensive – and they have to be. These are issues that all stakeholders are grappling with, and the solutions cannot be piecemeal in nature or temporary.

But as many educators will be familiar with – the best solution is to anticipate and prepare problems, instead of trying to tackle them after they arise. Our institutions and the stakeholders that engage with them will continue evolving. Things are no different for educational institutions. It might seem like we are at the cutting edge of technology in the schools of today. Pens, papers, and blackboards have been replaced by tablets, touchscreens and whiteboards. Timetables are obsolete, with millions of books accessible on a device that fits in your pocket. The dog eating your homework is no longer an excuse that works (unless Fido chewed through your computer cables). A PTA is an old tradition that may seem obsolete to parents and students that have constant access to a teacher.

Are we at the zenith of educational technology?

Of course, not. Educational technology will continue to evolve as long as societies do. Which means that the limit does not exist. What can we then do today to be future ready? Anticipate the needs of tomorrow and how the school ERP your future self will use can start being built today.

Here are three changes we anticipate today and how a school ERP will tackle them:

1. Increasing accessibility to diverse students

It is not just ensuring that teaching material is neutral enough so as not to offend the sensibilities of an increasingly diverse student body, but ensuring that every student, no matter their socio-economic background and physical or mental abilities, have access to comprehensive education at par with their mainstream counterparts. The right school ERP will create processes that are accessible to every kind of student, without the need for segregation. Whether it is a text-to-speech function for those who are visually impaired or problem sets that deal with real-life situations relatable to a student in rural Botswana, the school ERP of the future thrives on diversity.

2. Increased personalisation

Personalised attention is something most schools today promise. So why is this on our future-ready school wishlist? It’s because of the scale and depth of personalisation that students will expect – not hope for – in the future. Look at the platforms they engage with now! Their apps know their names, preferences, and what they seem to keep coming back for. Your school ERP
must take advantage of the wealth of data that is available to them every day and continually improve itself to provide a better experience for its patrons.

3. Increasing access

Great, you have a future school ERP that is able to give personalised attention to a variety of different types of students. You’re good to go, right? Unfortunately, accessibility to education continues to remain an issue in 2017. While things are improving, social barriers continue to be a deterrent to putting students in classrooms. Where does a school ERP come in? If developers of the future school ERP focus on building platforms accessible offline, that are as light on the system as they are light on the pocket, a much larger swathe of students will be able to do what they do best – study hard to build brighter tomorrows.