The pandemic that began in 2020 had a lot of positive and negative effects on the education sector. The major drawback of COVID was that the schools were closed, and the education came to a standstill. In the initial phases of the pandemic, the online system was not that strong, but with time the schools have dealt with the problem.
Now, online classes are being conducted worldwide amid the pandemic. Interestingly, according to research, online learning has been shown to increase information retention in less time.
According to statistics, more than 1.2 billion students in 184 countries are affected by school closures due to the pandemic. The adoption of online teaching will remain post-pandemic in every country. Countries like Denmark and South Korea are still using online platforms to teach. There has been a visible development in education technology, with investments reaching up to US$18.66 billion in 2019. The overall development will reach up to $350 Billion by 2025.
Education Sector & COVID-19
Many online learning platforms provide free access to the students so that they can study freely. Many other platforms also provide subjects and classes at an affordable price to understand complex concepts with ease. These online platforms have helped several students to study a variety of subjects at low prices.
Let us look at some key points regarding how the education system has been affected amid the pandemic.
- The COVID crisis has turned offline teaching into online ones. The education system has moved the activities online to continue the education while the schools are closed.
- Online schooling has proved to be an essential tool to sustain skills development. Still, there are some concerns regarding online development. For instance, there is a lack of preparation among the teachers about a particular topic.
- Students are nowadays developing strong attitudes towards online learning. The new technologies have helped students gain a positive attitude that plays an important role in improving performance at school. It has effectively helped the students in overcoming potential challenges.
- The education system amid COVID has aimed to strengthen the engagement between parents and teachers. It provides guidance and information to parents on effective practices undertaken during online teaching.
- Schools have also provided support to teachers to incorporate technology effectively.
How may digitisation prove beneficial for schools in the post-pandemic era?
Well, it is clear that the pandemic has highly affected education. In the book ‘21 Lessons for the 21st Century’, the author highlights the fact as to why and how the schools need to focus on traditional academic skills and learning. Skills like critical thinking, reasoning, adaptability, etc., are going to be in demand in the near future.
Digitization of schools entails adopting school ERP software that assists in the day-to-day academic & non-academic functions of a school. It includes e-learning management, student attendance, library and fee management, staff recruitment and salary transactions, homework management, and other administrative activities. It has been seen that the schools that used ERP software before the covid lockdown witnessed a smooth and efficient transition to online or digital mode, unlike their non-digitized counterpart, who experienced tremendous disruptions in the teaching and learning outcomes in the initial months after the lockdown.
Benefits that the School ERP software can provide in the post-covid scenario:
1 Uninterrupted Learning
School ERP software enables the uninterrupted continuation of teaching and learning processes in any situation with the help of cloud technology.
2. Examination and Analysis
School ERP software allows teachers to maintain student reports subject-wise, class-wise, and term-wise performances, which help in constant monitoring individual students’ progress.
3 Admission Process
School ERP software helps in streamlining the admission process. Here, the candidates seeking admission register and fill the form themselves, besides submitting documents and making payments.
4 Better quality learning materials
Unlike traditional books, School ERP software enables teaching documentaries, audios, videos, podcasts, etc.
5 Fee management
School ERP software helps automated and fast fee collection, invoice generation, reminders for remaining fees through SMS services, etc.
6 Payroll management
School ERP software can help automate salaries from school accounts to the teachers’ performances.
7 Seamless communication between parents and teachers
School management software uses an online notification system to ensure seamless and fast connectivity between teachers, students, and parents.
8 Management of finances
School management systems or software can bring in more accountability and responsibility for the school administration by keeping track of the expenditures and earnings of the school.
9 Recruitment process
School management software helps the school authority in creating vacancy requisitions with the options for approval/denial. Then, candidates fill the information stored over the cloud, and customized offer letters are generated for the selected candidates. It saves efforts, time, and resources and reduces the chances of clerical mistakes besides making the recruitment process fast and transparent.
10 GPS Tracking
School ERP software enables parents to track the location of their children at any time and contact drivers or transportation in charge in cases of emergency.
Given many benefits of the School ERP software, schools must adopt and adapt it further to their needs in the post-pandemic era to continue reaping advantages of the gains made during the covid times. As far as the ERP software for school management is concerned, AEDU is fast emerging as one of the most preferred school management software in post-covid times. Equipped with different applications and portals, it provides information to all the members of the school ecosystem, namely the admins, teachers, parents/students, and accountants. Cloud-based services facilitate uninterrupted learning, admission, recruitment, assessment, and library and fee management. What makes it stand apart is that AEDU uses AI as an inbuilt performance enhancer. Its mobile-friendly features further make it one of the most favored school management systems across the world.