The Guide to School Management System

Why is school management system important to any school administrator? Smart, top-notch school management software is becoming a notably fundamental and expanding part of educational management nowadays.

It provides school administrators with a school management information system that allows instant data-driven decisions.

This makes the flow of information in school much easier and smoother so that school principals get it whenever they want, at a time that goes with their workflow. Moreover, such systems let them get real-time information.

This way, their decisions are timely and relevant to the day-to-day activities and events. Implementing a school management system in your educational organization, finance, HR, teachers, students, payroll, payslip, and library, as well as school transportation, inventory, and reports management is right away much easier, simpler, and hassle-free.

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1. What Is School Management System?

School management system (SMS) refers to software platforms used to be a modern, more effective alternative to the traditional school management and administration. Online school management software like Skolera (SMS) provides schools with numerous features and modules to manage student affairs, human resources management, financial management, school services, and more!

young school principal using skolera school erp software

Further, the best school management software is one that manages information in the educational organization and allows for supervising projects, performance, and tasks as well as being constantly informed of any change that happens and may affect the school in any way.

 

Get to Know Skolera School Management System

Skolera is a Unified Learning Platform that utilizes the latest educational approaches and technology in school management.

Skolera all-in-one school management system is structured to provide a base on which you can drive a comprehensive academic and administrative operation for managing K-12 education institutions.

This is made easier for school principals by offering various unconnected systems to carry out the tasks in educational institutions, which are usually confusing, time-consuming, and often burdensome.

Skolera Learning Management System (LMS)

School School Management System (SMS)

  • Human Resources Management
  • Student Affairs
  • Financial Management
  • School Services
  • Better Communication

Furthermore, Skolera school management software tackles this by encompassing learning management, content management, and school management systems all in one platform.

 

2. There Are 7 Styles for the Role of School Management

According to “Restructuring: The Key to Effective School Management (Educational Management),” Tannenbaum and Schmidt (1973) identified 7 different styles of management:

  • Educational management makes decisions and then announces them.
  • School management makes a decision and then sells it to staff.
  • Administration and management of school present a tentative decision, subject to modification.
  • School leadership and management also present ideas to staff and invite questions.
  • School administrators present a problem to staff and select from their suggested solutions.
  • School principals identify the problem, leaving staff to make the decision.
  • They also leave staff to identify the problem and make the decision.

In this Ted Talk, Roselinde Torres describes her 25-year experience observing what makes great leaders at work. She also tells us the 3 simple but essential questions “would-be company chiefs need to ask to thrive in the future.”

However, no matter what your style in management is, a school management system should be able to work around it and provide you with the best results.

According to Wallace Foundation, “To date, we have not found a single case of a school improving its student achievement record in the absence of talented leadership.” 

Moreover, “most school variables, considered separately, have only small effects on student learning. To obtain large effects, educators need to create synergy across the relevant variables.

Among all the parents, teachers, and policymakers who work hard to improve education, educators in leadership positions are uniquely well-positioned to ensure the necessary synergy.”

On the other hand, the foundation explains the general definition of leadership as both “direction and influence.”

It clarifies that stability is the goal of what is often called management, while improvement is the goal of great leadership.

And one of the best ways to improve school management is using a school information system that will allow school principals to supervise the workflow within school effortlessly. 

3. Choosing Your School Management System To-Do

Being a school principal means you are always looking for a school management system that will help better the educational experience of your students.

We understand better than anyone that you have to think carefully before making any decisions about significant investments in your school. That is why we came up with a list of all the things to check when choosing a school management system!

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Flags Yes and No. Vector - choose the right school management software - illustration

3.1. Student Database Management System Is a Big Part of the School Management System

You may find it difficult to take care of and organize student data. Also keeping track of the different students records is not such an easy thing to do, especially with the dozen other managerial tasks that need to be done as well!

A school management system should provide a tool for maintaining accurate and up-to-date records on students including personal and contact information, student documents, guardians, and emergency contacts.

Skolera’s school management online application module is an easy to use tool to keep track and organize records of applicants.

Here are some of the best features Skolera school management system offers to school administrators in regard to the student database management system:

Parents Can Submit Their Application to School Online: Skolera enables you to create an online school application form. A customized online application template is created and it could vary from one stage to another or from one grade to another. This way, parents can apply online and then the school could allocate students to their classes in case of acceptance or assign them to any other status

Admission: Add new students easily through filling in a form that could have customized fields.

Students Control: View all present students as well as the former ones through a searching engine that would allow showing up their profile details including their data and their guardians/siblings details. Further actions like editing or deleting are available as well as transferring students from one class/grade to another.

3.2. School ERP Software: Human Resources Management 

Now, with the race towards better technology to be implemented in professional organizations and the increasing number of employees within schools, paperwork, and uncountable sheets, an HR management system integrated into your ERP software is the solution.
An integrated yet sufficient, effective, and qualified HR tool to manage the school staff will get the job done in no time.
You don’t need to open a dozen self-reliant, independent applications and tools to manage your school when you can have everything and more in an all-in-one solution: Skolera.
Skolera fulfills the need for a comprehensive school management software of all processes, while remaining user friendly, practical, streamlined, and systematic.
Having a human resource management integrated software ensures providing you with the highest levels of efficiency and production as well as engagement. 

Moreover, creating a strong, comprehensive, and organized database gives your employees a space for freedom to innovate, exchange ideas, creativity, and request leave without worry about not accepting the application at a later time due to any confusion that may arise with other employees’ leaves.

It is also a great opportunity to create an environment of transparency in which employees are not afraid to express their opinion, learn, and exchange knowledge; everything in the educational institution is organized and scheduled in a state-of-the-art system.

That’s why you need to make sure the school management system available has an effective HR management system. A smart HR management system allows tracking of employee records, leave management, payroll, and payslip management.

school management system Employee-View-all

Skolera school administration and management: viewing employees data through the HR management system

With Skolera school management system, you can effectively and efficiently manage employee data.

Skolera allows you to assign employees to their respective departments, register employee attendance and time, issue payslips, and much more!

Payslip Management-Advanced Payslip Reports - school management software - school

Skolera school administration and management: checking advanced payslip reports on the HR management system

Here are some of the best features Skolera school management system offers to school administrators in regard to HR management:

 

  • HR Settings: Set up and maintain Human Resources by adding employees and managing their subject associations
  • Employee Management: Add different types of employees and assign the academic staff easily to their classes.
  • Payroll & Payslip Management: Set up the employee payroll and manage their payslips in a very flexible process.
  • Employee Search: Search, view, print, and maintain employee records easily.

 

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Moreover, the various HR settings in this school management software help organize employees into categories and departments, creating leave and payroll groups that have specific rules and settings.

3.3. School Management System Supports Communication and Collaboration 

Strong professional relationships within school depend extensively on good communication. Communication between the different stakeholders in a school is the key to success. 

Additionally, Managing an educational entity implies communicating, conveying ideas, feelings, and decisions to subordinates as well as the possibility of returning information (Communication Strategies in Educational Management International Symposium, Ruse, Bulgaria, 2017).

Reports - school management system

Checking various reports in Skolera school management software

You find the successful school principal always looking for an opportunity to meet school students and their families and greet them in a personal capacity. Also, their door is always open to everyone.

Successful school administration deals with parents as clients and even as primary partners in the educational process. Therefore, continuous communication between the principal and the families is essential.

Therefore, with Skolera, the best school management software, built-in notifications and the ability to send emails and mobile SMS allow members of the school community to communicate instantly and efficiently.

The collaboration tools and task management help the management follow up and identify points of strength and weakness.

· Send Email: Communication process is easily done through the platform using your school domain.

· Email Alert Settings: Notification is received upon new emails.      

3.5. Finance Management System Integrated into School Management System 

A simple and effective module for keeping track of financial transactions such as structuring of student fees, recording fee payments, issuing invoices and receipts, employees salaries, recording of all income and expense transactions.

school management system - Fees-Fee-Structure

 Fees structure in the finance system, Skolera school information management system

Finance Control: Build your school’s fees structure and customize the submission ways and refund policies with an option to approve/reject payslips and easily apply discounts to the chosen categories.

3.6. School Management Software Involves Library Management System 

This module helps organize and track books and reference books in the school library. The book movement log keeps records of books on loan and the expected dates for their return. Book tags make it easy to find a list of books that relate to a specific topic.

Library Management in skolera - school information management system

Library management in Skolera school information management system

How Can Educational Management Help Library System?

Educational management helps build the library structure and then manage the books after inserting their names, bar codes, tags, and full details. With Skolera school management system you can easily track the books’ renting and check the movement log. 

3.7. Easily Manage Bus/Transport System at Your School using Online School Management Software

Skolera developers believe that school buses should be 100% safe. We have recently seen a rise in the number of parents refusing to participate in their school transportation service for their children, in fear of any road accidents or inadvertent neglect.

Some parents drive their children to school every day to be completely assured of their children’s safety from the second they step out of their homes until they reach school and return back again.

This module in Skolera school management system helps give school principals and parents the peace of mind urgently needed in such case, to make sure the school bus trips are as safe and highly managed as possible.

The school transport department helps in setting up bus routes and stops, track vehicles, driver and attendant assignments, transport fees for students and employees, and track vehicle maintenance, renewals, licenses, and registration information.

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Drivers-and-Attendants-Assign-Employees - school management system

Skolera school management software—Assigning employees in the transport management system

Transport Admin: Build your transportation structure which will involve the bus routes, stops, vehicle details, transport fees, transport attendance, and bus drivers details as well.

3.8. How School Administration and Management: State-of-the-Art Inventory Management System

Store items are assets. In Skolera school ERP software, the inventory management system provides tools for tracking item stock, consumption, suppliers, purchase orders, and indents. The built-in sales module allows tracking of items sold by the school. 

This system helps schools in their commercial dealings by buying and selling any expenses that are collected and following up on their stores and warehouses accurately.

These items may be educational tools that are considered outside the value of school expenses such as pens, files, paper books, and school uniforms, or drinks and food sold in the cafeteria, or things needed for school games, e.g., basketball and football, or even chairs and tables and laboratory items, etc.

Invoices-New - school management system

Checking invoices using Skolera school administration software

Managing Inventory at School: Create and manage store categories, types, stores, store items, supplier types, and suppliers, besides creating the indents and managing the purchase orders. Easily create GRN and manage tax calculation mode.

3.9. Reports Are Indispensable at School Information Management System

Recording and documenting is important. However, the ultimate goal is to be able to generate useful reports from the data on the system.

In Skolera, a variety of pre-loaded reports is available for users. The custom reports tool gives the flexibility to create customized reports based on either student or employee data.

Custom Reports View: Customize and check which fields you want to generate a report for and easily download it

Custom Reports Control: Customize and create your reports related to all the modules in the platform.

 Finance Reports: Get a full report about the school fee collection software details, students’ fee defaulters, and students head wise ones.

Employee Reports: View and Export all the details related to the employees and the subject association module.

Transport Report: A very beneficial report that may include transport allocation, route wise allocation, route details, transport fee, and transport attendance report.

Student Report: Generate a report for the present/former students with their details.


3.10. Check Out Skolera General Additional System Settings

  • Use Your Own Theme and Logo. Customize your communication contacts and school details. Tailor the system in depth to fit your precise needs with full security by forcing the users to change their passwords to a strong one the first time they log in.
  • Custom Import Privilege. Bulk import most of your data to facilitate building up your databases such as students and employees.school management system - Manage-Academic-Years - school administrators
  • Manage Class/Batch. Easily build your school structure by creating different grades and classes in different stages.
  • Subject Master. Create different subjects whether they are core or elective ones with an option to import those subjects to different grades easily. The administrator here sets a complete basic plan for each subject, setting the number of classes it requires and so on. Doing this, we now have a comprehensive structure for the different subjects in each grade, whether they are core or elective ones.
  • Manage Users. Limit users’ access to certain functionalities according to their authorities.

3.11. A Cloud-based School Management Software Is the Best for Your School

Cloud-based school management software (SMS) provides an unprecedented opportunity for educational institutions.

Connecting students, teachers, administration, and parents to each other, a school MIS systems combine everyone’s efforts into one while providing each member with a unique experience that fits their needs.

Using a cloud-based school management system ERP like Skolera should definitely be a part of your school management plan. It will help improve the educational experience at your institution. 

According to researchers, the effect of school leaders (school administrators) is second only to teachers. The total (direct and indirect) effects of leadership on student learning are about 1/4 of total school effects. It is time we reap the rewards of this concept and use it to improve the school for a better educational future.  

To follow up on the newest trends in education and learning management systems, check our blog on a regular basis. You can also know more about how to help manage your school through Skolera through our website

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Resources:

  1. Management Information Systems, Genetic Computer School, 2002.
  2. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042814006764.
  3. Restructuring: The Key to Effective School Management (Educational Management), Cyril Poster, 1999.

About Yasmine Nasr

Yasmine Nasr has been part of the content world since 2017. She has worked as a translator, content writer, editor, copyeditor, and English language instructor. She holds a BA degree in English, Translation, and Literature, plus a degree in literary and media translation from the American University in Cairo. Now Yasmine is a content writer interested in education technology, especially exams autograding, computer-based exams, evaluation & assessment systems, and LMS, in relation to academic accreditation with the aim to improve exams quality and student learning and experience.

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