Technology key to Building Schools for the Future
Despite the current uncertainty around the future funding of BSF in many quarters, it seems certain that technology will play a leading role in the future development of the UK’s schools. LGE hears from Simon Nakra, of education technology provider, DRS Data Services Limited.
Building Schools for the Future (BSF) is the biggest ever national school buildings investment programme. The aim is to rebuild or refurbish some 3,500 secondary schools in England, including the integration of applications such as electronic registration, access control and cashless catering solutions.
This ambitious government-driven reform programme is set to raise educational standards with technology playing a key role.
Education establishments have the continuing, challenging task of improving systems in order to meet the fundamental objective of providing appropriate duty of care to students and parents. Keeping students safe and secure, and providing assurances of this to parents, is vital. Adopting an electronic
registration solution designed to accurately monitor and track student attendance and whereabouts, whilst enabling the fast and accurate retrieval and analysis of data, not only provides these assurances, but also helps to inform policy formulation and planning at a local and national level.
Thousands of educational institutions including schools, colleges and universities are already monitoring student attendance using data capture technologies to record and process session and lesson level registration and attendance. These systems use scanning technologies such as biometric and card to generate real-time attendance data providing a crucial insight into student behaviour. Adopting this approach enables staff to notify parents and guardians of their child’s absence more quickly, supporting the establishment’s duty of care and providing the opportunity to improve parental support in the area of student attendance.
Electronic registration systems are available with a choice of biometric, card and PIN technologies and have the capability to interface seamlessly with most educational MIS systems enabling educational institutions to electronically record the presence, absence and lateness of students – and staff! – in real-time, eradicating all manual registration methods. Electronic registration solutions also encourage students to take responsibility and accountability for their own attendance, as well as reducing the administrative burden for teachers. It is also an effective way to monitor EMA.
There are many systems available on the market but the best tend to come as part of an Integrated Education Solution that can also be used for cashless catering, library management and many other core functions. In a modern school it is essential that multiple applications be coordinated and integrated. This way, not only does the project manager at the establishment benefit from having just one point of contact, but also – and more crucially – the systems work together and offer strength in unity.
It is equally important, when implementing an electronic registration system, to seek out organisations that specialise in solutions for education establishments where the development team is focused on designing systems that are fit for school, college or university purposes as opposed to commercial use.
As specialists in electronic attendance and registration solutions, DRS has already implemented its electronic registration technologies into over ten thousand schools and colleges, and as such is perfectly placed to provide advice and support, whether to future BSF projects or to established schools and academies, colleges or universities. DRS and its partners have a proven track record and their lengthy collaboration positions them to provide a one-stop-shop to meet the specific demands of the BSF programme.
