You may look around you and realize that there is absolutely no shortage of School Management Systems to choose from. Available at every single price point and for every size of Institution, you may feel like you have more choices than you need. So how do you go about choosing the School Management System that works for you?
Here is the perfect and honest guide:
- What exactly do you need?
It’s helpful to take stock of the challenges you’re facing and put down what exactly you’d like to see change. For example, you may decide to use an end-to-end solution for education design and management, that enables you to do everything from manage your institute to teach better to get your students better mentorship and opportunities for mentorship from a single platform. It helps to do a deep dive in to what is working and what isn’t, to understand where you need to spend your dollars.
- Do you already have software that you like to use?
You may already be working with software that your staff is comfortable with and you foresee reluctance on their part to learn anew. In this case, a good question to ask is if the school management system will integrate with your legacy systems and also train your staff to use it and do better.
- Who are their clients?
This question may sound like a no-brainer. However, many people neglect to ask it. When looking at their client list, don’t just look for big names that are well-recognized, but also the kind of institutes, the number of students, the kind of education structure they have in terms of application-based, project-work, collaborative, or content delivery, and check how aligned their methodology is with yours before you make a decision.
- What are their alliances?
With the education sector undergoing a massive transformation, students’ expectations have also changed. Increasingly, live projects and the opportunity to work on them, no matter what the student’s age, are taking center-stage. In fact, with the NEP 2020 stating that internships and apprenticeships should begin in class 6, the kind of opportunities for mentorships and work exposure have become all important, so it is a good idea to ensure that your school management system also brings with it a professional ecosystem of its own.
- Is it scalable?
Studies have shown, that in 2021, 35% of students in India did not take admission or re-admission in the academic year. This proves that no matter how big your student base, it is likely that some percentage of your clientele will be dynamic. A good parameter to evaluate your school management system is how much flexibility it offers you by way of minimum and maximum user base and how quickly it responds to change.
- Does it protect your IP?
One of your biggest assets, as an educational institute is your teachers and the content they create. While they create content in order to give to students, and sometimes there is very little control over what happens to the content they create, there is a huge opportunity to monetize teacher-created content, if it is sufficiently protected from theft and plagiarism. Your school management system needs to offer protection and security, not just for sensitive information such as student details and payment information, but also for institute-owned content, generating a possible alternative method of earning for your institute.
- Does the platform have a roadmap?
With edtech relatively new, there are likely to be many solutions that do not take off or do not end up going anywhere. When evaluating edtech software, be sure to consider what the founders have in mind for the product’s future, what problems it’s trying to solve, and how the vision for the product lines up with your own.
Finally, selecting a school management software can feel like an intuitive decision. However, doing your homework, asking the right questions, and following through on your findings can make the difference between following fads, and finding a partner that will grow with you and help you deliver on your ambitions for your education institute.
