Category: Education

The education sector has quickly appreciated automation. But, all stakeholders seem worried about the possible impact. Will automation give more time to teachers for focusing on students, or will it take away jobs? Can school ERP help trainees reach their goals?

How will students react to the rise and spread of this new form of education? Should children remain glued to computer and phone screens while learning?

Besides these, several other questions are surrounding the role of automation. But, as a part of the administration, you probably consider ROI as the most significant factor.

How much money can the school automation system save annually?

• A study conducted at Visalia Unified School District (California) says a lot. Replacing paper with digital forms can help save $10,000 every year.
• Roughly 80 percent of an organization’s operational budget goes towards labor costs.
• You can save excess human resource costs with automation.
• Automation increases the efficiency of the existing workforce.
• Enabling technology also helps in saving compliance costs.

Education ERP is a Lifeline for Institutions Operating with Minimum Resources:

1. Automation in administrative procedures

You can save resources in every department, right from admission to the examination process and even transportation. Managing things becomes more straightforward.

• Admission process

People often think schools take an unnecessary long time frame for the enrollment process.

There are several educational academies with old-school manual procedures. Ask anyone working in the school admin team; the admission file approval takes time.

Reading forms, cross-checking documents, and confirming the trainee’s eligibility is tiresome. Automation puts an end to all this.

Information from various documents gets scanned and processed. Cloud-based servers act as storage for the extracted data.

The management can take a quick look at the records and affidavits from a remote location. The candidate’s admission application gets approved or rejected within minutes.

• Organizing schedules

Creating a daily and weekly schedule (timetable) is a critical process. The admin team checks the availability of teachers and plans the lectures.

The individual responsible for scheduling ends up repeating the process each week. Working hours’ data for the faculty is further forwarded to the payroll team as well.

With the school management system in place, human involvement remains the least. The administrator can set a scheduling workflow. The software creates a schedule within minutes after checking the availability of lecturers. Participants get notified via the school portal and apps.

• Tracking attendance for virtual classes and activities

Keeping accurate records for attendance is vital for every school. The task has become even more critical in the era of virtual classrooms.

Education automation systems work with learning management software and online exam solutions.

You might wonder, what about attendance for virtual classes? The process is automatic and error-free. Trainee’s presence gets registered when they complete a specific task.

• Managing progress reports for students

The online exam module takes care of tests, assignments. But what about progress reports and results?

Teacher’s job was difficult in the early days of pen-paper-based exams. There was no option but to check a massive mountain of answer sheets. Then, lecturers had to create hand-written progress reports every quarter.

School ERP integrates with online exam modules. It retrieves scores for tests and stores the data. Progress reports are system generated within minutes, without errors.

You can even send digital progress reports to parents via email or make them available on apps.

• Ensuring regulatory compliance

Organizations working in the education sector have to adhere to government regulations. This paperwork burden often results in strain on the already burdened workforce.

There are regulations for training, payroll processing, premise audit, and data security. Government auditors may seek information on donations and fees. They may also need a way to generate pay stubs online or create other financial documents safely.

Penalties for non-compliance can result in 2.71 times the compliance cost. Thus, enabling technologies and conducting timely audits can help in ensuring compliance.

There is no need to track compliance through external databases and spreadsheets. ERP offers real-time access to information and reports. Data stored in cloud-based storage remains available for audits. With pre-programmed formats, you can generate reports immediately.

2. Speed up the communication loop

Earlier, teachers had limited mediums to communicate and send crucial information to parents. And yes, if you remember, writing notes and remarks in the school diary for parents was one of them. Students often used whiteners, and at times, teachers used to forget to follow up.

You can set modern education automation systems to send alerts to parents. There’s no need to worry about managing grades, attendance, and module completion notifications.

These features are beneficial to teachers as well. Lecturers do not have to spend hours drafting many emails and follow up on the issues. They can reinvest the saved time in training students.

Another significant aspect is that there is no delay in information relaying. Tests get evaluated, and the ERP can share results for the same with all parties without delays. Depending on security configurations, the program can also send reports for security incidents.

3. Access code-free automation

Faculties, admin staff, and school board members often lack coding skills. As grasping the process remains challenging, educational institutions prefer code-free automation.

Most of the school administration software programs do not involve codes. Basic training can be enough for staff to use the system.

Should schools and colleges wait further to digitalize operations?

Technology has already made its way into everyone’s life. Smartboards, projectors, and computers have become a part of school life.

The pandemic forced institutions to put in place technology. Yet, teachers and administrators still lack in-depth training.

Some institutions have implemented robotic process automation (RPA) and AI-powered solutions. But, others are still yet to install a basic school administration system. The sector lags in implementing automation. Lack of expertise, knowledge and financial constraints are reasons behind the same.

Conclusion

Several organizations are hesitating to put in place education ERP. But, they may find themselves turning obsolete within a year or so.

Automation in education offers benefits to all stakeholders. The digital transformation helps institutions grow with time. Students get the best learning experience.

It’s a strange kind of Summer this year; with so much time spent home learning in 2020/21 and no SATs and GCSEs for the second year in a row, the idea of lost learning has reared its head. This idea, mixed with the news stories about slow recovery in the education sector and the usual ‘summer slide’, it’s easy to see why parents are concerned.

The good news is, while U.S. studies find students lose one month of learning over the summer months, this is down to the fact that the US school break is 11 weeks compared to 6 weeks in the UK. And while higher losses were measured for maths, much of the data around the summer slide is inconclusive.

What is of more concern in the UK is a study from the Institute for Fiscal Studies. In this study, the amount of daily schoolwork secondary pupils completed at home during last year’s lockdown declined the longer they stayed out of the classroom.

All schools have been working on a catch-up plan, but beware, says DR Dan O’Hare, co-chair of the BPS division of educational and child psychology, of talking too much about lost education to your child. “The notion that children need to catch up or are ‘behind’ at school due to the pandemic puts them under even more pressure to perform academically after what has been a challenging and unprecedented time for everyone,” he told the PA News agency.

So as parents, what can you do? Firstly, there is a multitude of ways you can help your child this Summer without putting them under pressure.

• Look at their yearly report, as this will show you what areas need more focus. Alongside this, compare their annual reports to see if there is a wide discrepancy. Perhaps your child needs to revise a little more or get extra help with knowledge gaps (understandable during home learning), or learn to express themselves more clearly in tests. Locate the gaps with the help of their teachers and then ask them what kind of help they would like.

• Whether your child is struggling or not, one area most pupils tend to slide in is Maths. Solve this by going over all topics from the last year and past papers. Just twice a week during the Summer can make a difference to the Autumn term.

• For children making the transition to secondary school in September, revising Year 6 work is vital. Many secondary schools will be using CAT exams (see below) in the autumn term, especially as there were no SATs this year. Working with a Tutor can also be helpful and allow a child to express more clearly areas they feel unsure about.

• The Cognitive Abilities Tests (CATs) are used in most secondary schools to test general intelligence and stream in Maths and English. However, you cannot revise for these tests as they are designed to assess a pupil’s ability in three different areas: verbal (thinking with words), quantitative (thinking with numbers), and non-verbal (thinking with shapes and space). They do not test a child’s knowledge but focusing on consistent learning over the Summer will help your child feel ready.

• Make sure your child reads through summer. News articles, fiction and non-fiction will all increase their vocabulary, literacy skills and essay writing techniques. If your child isn’t a reader or bored of reading, try and entice them into new reads or older reads. Try the Book Trust for ideas.

Impacts and Benefits of Online Home Tutoring

Multiplication tables are a huge landmark in kid’s mathematical studies. In order to get promoted to higher grades and start solving complex mathematical problems, kids need to be proficient in the art of multiplying numbers.

If you have given your child a good initial multiplication training, it’s going to help them in the long run and be very beneficial in higher grades when they begin working with larger numbers.

Following are the 5 quickest ways with which kids can learn multiplication tables.

1. Skip counting

Skip counting is when you count at intervals of any number you like. If I were to skip count by seven, I would count 7, 14, 21, and so on. You can easily accomplish single-digit multiplication with this method. For example, suppose your teacher asks you to multiply 4 x 7 =. Simply count sevens four times, 7, 14, 21, and 28. 4 x 7 = 28 is the answer.

Go over the skip-counting list until you get to the halfway mark (3, 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18). Allow your child to speak it out loud while pointing to the answers one by one with a finger or a pen.  This engages many senses at the same time.

Ask them to repeat the list from memory after they have gone over it a few times.

The mind is similar to muscles in that it requires exercise to grow stronger.

Require them to memorize this list in both ascending and descending order.

Go through the remaining items on the list: 21, 24, 27, 30, 33, 36.

Finally, go over the entire list of answers. Repeat the list UP AND DOWN until it seems natural and effortless.

Time table sheet

Time table sheets can be used in multiple ways. You can use it to practice and put it in front of your kids so they can keep memorizing it regularly.

2. Adding method

If kids are starting to learn multiplication, tell them to use their previously learned knowledge of addition. Adding similar amounts to the times you want to multiply will work great.

For example

If you want 4×4 then you can add four, four times to get the desired result.

4+4+4+4= 16    4×4=16

You will get the same answers. Once they get fluent with this method make sure they memorize the table.  If get stuck they can use this technique to master multiplication.

Learn from easy to hard

Make sure that your child learns the easy multiplication table first before moving on to difficult ones. This way they will not lose interest in the subject and consider it far more difficult than it actually is.

Table of 1, 2, 5, 9, 10, and 11 are comparatively easy to learn. Than move to 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 12.

For example 2 ×2 =4 and you can always add two to the previous answer to get the next amount. This is only easy until the number gets big enough to learn new ways.

The table to 5 has 5’s and 0’s as the end digit.

Table of 10 is the easiest.  Just add zero next to the digit of multiplication.

Once they learn the easier ones and practice to perfection, make sure to slowly and steadily introduce them to hard ones.   They will soon discover that not all are easy. More difficult ones simply need some extra attention.

3. Tricks for learning tables

Some multiplication tables can be memorized with easy tricks. Math games can also help children stay engaged in learning.

Take for example the table of 9. You have to write the counting once in ascending order and then in descending order. But when it’s done they must be memorized properly. You will put 9 multiple one is 9 and then 1st digit is in increasing order from 1 to 9 and other digit in decreasing order 9 to 1

For example

9×1=9

9×2=18

9×3=27

9×4=36

9×5=45

And so on to 9×10=90

4. Use of fun toys

The best way to make sure your kids learn multiplication tables is to make it fun. You can use any type of toys, coins, Lego blocks, or even jigsaw puzzles, whichever one is of most interest to your child.

You can teach them multiplication by making pairs of their favorite coins.  Then ask them to put pair together and count how many coins are there altogether.

For example, if you are teaching kids table of 3 give them 3 pairs in order to get 3 × 3 =9.   This way they will know that combining 3 pairs of 3 will get 9.  This will help them learn more effectively and efficiently.

Once kids do this multiple times they will not only enjoy their experience and have a good time, they will learn new multiplication tables as the progress. It’s been shown that

5. Learn by drilling

This is the most widely used way for achieving the goal of learning times tables. Make sure that you encourage your kids to drill three times a day and memorize their multiplication tables. This way they will most quickly remember and respond when certain multiplication questions are asked by the teacher.

Constant drilling is the key here as much as possible.

Make sure that they memorize it in every order whether upward or downward. This way kids will be able to answer in any way possible.

Another way of drilling kids is while listening to their favorite songs. Music has been proven to enhance a child’s memorization even while studying for an exam.  Studies show that it’s not the type music that matters.  It’s that the person enjoys the music.  Rhythm in music through songs is also an effective way to grab attention and help children learn.

A major part of the times table learning process that kids are constantly quizzed. If they memorize a table, quiz them regularly to perfect their memory.

Rewarding kids for hard work is also a great way to ensure they stay enthusiastic and ready for upcoming texts and quizzes. Incorporating pictures like your child’s favorite animals to visually enhance multiplication tables. This helps to awaken all sense for learning and make the experience much more fun and memorable.

We all want our kids to be successful in life. Teaching them to have a rewarding career that keeps them financially secure is a great goal. But to succeed, children need to learn career-building skills.

As parents, we can help our kids learn what they need for the future. Before your child is a graduate seeking a university options, that teaching can begin as early as pre-school.

First, though, we need to understand what skills can help them thrive.

Two Kinds Of Skills Your Kids Need

When we think of job skills, we often think of job-related skill sets, or hard skills. Doctors, for example, need to be well-versed in human anatomy and medicine.

It’s equally important today to have soft skills that appeal to employers. These are the intangible skills necessary to succeed in any job, such as a good bedside manner. They are more akin to positive character traits.

There are several soft skills that employers seek in a candidate. These include curiosity, creativity, a strong work ethic, and problem-solving abilities.

The groundwork for both hard and soft skills begins before they even get to school.

Preschoolers: Laying the Foundation

Little kids have an innate curiosity about the world. You can nurture this trait by helping them to explore jobs that make the world go round. Expose your children to a wide variety of experiences at this age:

• Let them dress up for different careers: firefighter, doctor or nurse, scientist.
• Visit educational or immersive places like museums, nature hikes, or kid-centered science centers.
• Let them watch or read age-appropriate programming and books that focus on different careers to discover their interests and gifts.

You can also teach soft skills:

• Adaptability: Ensure your children can handle a break in their daily routines. Disrupt the schedule from time to time to teach them this skill.
• Creativity: This can be as simple as arts and crafts! Try to find kid workshops outside the home as well as at-home activities.
• Teamwork: Teach your children to work together for chores or while playing games.

Preschoolers may not yet get a good handle on soft skills. Their early school years will help build those skills.

Elementary School: Where Soft Skills Grow

As children interact more with their peers, desired soft skill traits can flourish. Schools that foster the best of these skills help students mature. For example, if a school awards students for kindness, children are encouraged to help others and develop leadership talents.

Hopefully, your child’s school fosters relationships and teamwork in addition to providing academics. If you are worried about this, get your child involved in extracurricular activities. These can help him build team skills, dedication, leadership, respect for others, and more.

At this age, children can learn more about the hard skills needed for a particular career path. Ask them frequently about their desired future career. Help them to discover in-depth what is involved in pursuing that field.

Middle School: Career Planning Begins

By now, you may be able to see areas where your child shines academically. This is the best time to help your child discover his career path. Take a good look at grades, teacher comments, extracurricular activities, and anything that gets your child excited.

For example, if your child gets steady high grades in math or science, she may want to prepare for a job in science, tech, engineering, or math. These STEM careers are some of the fastest-growing fields for college graduates today. Many of these jobs pay well too.

While kids under 14 are often too young to work, some can do volunteer work. Even if this is not in their field, it will give them a good background in hands-on work. All of these things looks good on a resume!

Middle schoolers can also look at specialized high schools that focus on their desired field. Students can study resume examples that suit the industry they are interested in.  They can also begin their college search to prepare for high school goals that get future applications noticed.

High School: Skills That Land The Job

Some teachers will tell you that the entire goal of high school is to prepare you to work in the real world. No doubt the most intense preparation begins at this level.

Your teen should be ready for their first job search, and you can assist them. Help them write their first resume for a job that requires little to no experience (stock clerk, YMCA lifeguard). What do you include in a resume? Important items include:

• Key skills, especially soft skills which might be the bulk of their resume.
• Action verbs that highlight what they have achieved so far.
• The goal of a resume is to stand out in the hiring manager’s mind. Teach your teens to share their personality and their unique talents in a serious, professional manner.

Help your teenager to create relationships outside of school so they can build a network full of opportunities. Networking can also provide them opportunities such as job shadowing, giving them a good idea of what a job entails beyond the required hard skills.

For example, if your teen wants to become a nurse, there is a clear educational path but several key soft attributes they need as well. Teens can study a cover letter for nursing to learn what these skills are while learning how to write such a letter.

A Final Note for Kids

Setting Realistic Goals for a Your Future

For many people, a brand new year means a fresh start. For others, there is anticipation about upcoming events, such as another birthday or a special holiday trip. As one year rolls into the next, you may be looking for clues as to what the future holds. Here are 100% genuine true predictions you can count on.

1. You will hear or read something that will hurt your feelings.

Unfortunately, this is a fact of life. Remember that everyone sees the world differently and everyone has a different opinion. And just because you hear or read something that stings you, the commenter might not have meant anything mean.

The key is to not take things too personally.  Expect that people will disappoint you from time to time. Humans make mistakes and often do not intend to hurt others.

2. You will try to reach a goal and fail.

Winning at anything means taking steps along the way and stumbling. Every time you fail at reaching a goal, you get close to actually getting there.

Many famous and successful people have said that there is no success without failure. It is an essential stepping stone to greater things as long as you keep on trying.

3. You will try to reach a goal and succeed.

It might be a small goal, like getting a great mark on a pop quiz or finally being able to make a super-serious friend laugh at one of your jokes.

Every time you try to do something, it makes you stronger and more confident. Most people make lists of huge, towering resolutions and ultimately break them before the year has even started. Make lists of small goals and soon you will find bigger goals easier to tackle.

4. Something you do will have a major effect on your life.

It could be a friend that you make. It could be some nice act you perform for another person that changes how you feel about yourself. It could be a new skill you learn or an achievement in school or online eLearning.

You might not even know that this “thing” is important until years later. Still, this year will make a difference for years to come. Think about that when you get up each morning.

5. One of your idols will do or say something idiotic.

Yup. That’s a guarantee. As a matter of fact, all of us will do or say something idiotic in the future.

It could be in person or online, but every single living human being will say or do or post something that will look silly to others. That’s why everyone of us should expect to say, “I’m sorry,” or “I’ve made a mistake” at least once.

6. You will make at least one decision between right and wrong.

Doing the right thing in the face of adversity is never easy. You may be approached to cheat on a test or be tempted to ignore a good friend because of peer pressure.

You may see someone being bullied and want to help them but be faced with fear of what will happen if you do.  Accept that you will make mistakes like every other human on the planet.   The important thing is to decide now the kind of person you want to be and surround yourself with the type of people that will help you “be that person”.

7. You will work and you will play – and you can have fun doing both.

A good life is about balance.  All play and no work brings discontentment.  We all need goads to strive for.  All work and no play will stress you out and is not healthy.  Plan now to make sure there is balance in your life… between sports and school, between family and friends and even your own “alone time”.

The next year is going to be an interesting one. The person you are when it begins is not the person you will be when you celebrate the next new year.

Life for a child is about making small changes with the help of your parents.  All those changes add up to exciting growth to ensure you are read to choose a lifelong career when the time comes.  In the meantime, enjoy the changes in your life and around the world.