Information technology: System launched for digital monitoring of schools

950 monitoring assistants get tablets to record details about schools

LAHORE: The Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) has launched a Smart Monitoring of School System (SMSS) for the effective monitoring of schools across the province.

“Under the system, the government’s monitoring staff has been equipped with SIM-enabled tablets allowing digital submission of key statistics related to attendance of students and school staff, administrative inspections, availability of utilities, cleanliness arrangements, distribution of free books and budgets,” PITB Chairman Umar Saif told The Express Tribune on Thursday.

He said that earlier the monitoring staff, during their monthly visits to schools, had to manually record data requiring at least 45 minutes for the exercise at each school.

“With the introduction of the new technology, the process will become more efficient, economical and faster,” he said. Saif said that the new monitoring mechanism included real-time reporting with pictorial evidence, geo-tagging of sites that had been visited and automatic alerts about low-target performance. A centralised dashboard in the system provides access to the consolidated information for timely trend analysis and decision making, he said.

Saif said that initially 950 monitoring and evaluation assistants had been tablets having details of 54,000 schools.

District Review Committees, headed by the DCOs concerned, examine the data collected by the monitoring staff.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 10^th, 2015.