Tweet-tweet! SMS for improved education systems

By Anusha

Have you heard about a system followed in a particular country where the education system is corrupt? It deals with incorporating the wireless technology that we cannot live without, with education.

 

It may not sound astounding, but we are talking about SMS involvement in schools and colleges, to discuss various problems, which otherwise cannot be discussed due to various reasons. It has been successfully deployed and has been considered as a best way to gather evidence against any bad deed that occurs in the education institution.

This is how the system works , it is an anonymous SMS box of suggestions incorporated throughout the academic campus. It provides a free and confidential short-code for students, teachers and administrators. A text message can be sent to the number (which the system currently uses in the country it's deployed) when there is a problem.

The person who has sent the SMS shall receive a call back from an operator within 24 hours to collect further details about the issue and also ideas to resolve the issue.

A discussion is held on a regular basis on the information that is gathered via the system. This is done in the presence of the student government, academic administrators and parent teacher associations. These people who participate in the discussion come to a collective conclusion to resolve the problem.

Can SMS improve education system?!

A meeting with a larger student body is held where they share the findings of the process. Additionally, the next course of action is explained. This is a way to encourage the people (students and faculty) to use the system. This gives way to a self-fortifying loop of reporting, prevention, action and discussion.

In an educational institution, there can be several problems that each of them might be facing.For instance, attendance could be an issue, and reporting this would invariably help the administration take necessary action to improve the attendance. Other problems could be that a particular teacher might have been abusing a particular student. The student's fear of being punished by the teacher if the teacher's behaviour was reported could have stopped the student from slipping out the truth. With such a system involved, students need not worry about keeping the issue as confidential.

The system uses simple technology and is an open source. The information received is recorded in a spreadsheet.The most challenging thing involved would be to convince people that things shall remain confidential. But as far as the system that is currently in use in many countries is concerned; it is proved to be trustworthy.

If children of other countries are benefited from this, then it certainly provides an option for us to incorporate the same in India. After all, we are not lagging behind when it comes to the number of issues that we face in our education system. This could as well be, one of the solutions to the many challenges that the education institution in India face.

Share your opinion on incorporating such system in our country here: https://www.facebook.com/oneindiaeducation

You can read more education related news here

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