Education dept to develop app to help inspect, monitor schools
CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government will develop a new mobile application exclusively for the School Education Department field level authorities to carry out inspections and monitor government, government-aided and self-financing schools across the State.
The government’s move to develop the application with the help of Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan came against the backdrop of lack of transparency with regard to the inspection of the schools.
The application would replace the existing manual, paper-based monitoring process. The app can record real-time data to improve school management and governance by timely interventions, streamlining, transparency and accountability through channelised escalations to field-level academic and non-academic staff and timely actions.
“Administrators will be trained to use the application. It will be used during their inspections,” a senior official from the School Education Department said.
He pointed out that the field-level education staff would facilitate to improve the quality of education and to backup the rollout of initiatives and projects started by State. Stating that the application has features that would guide the staff through a series of questions regarding each component during the visit site, he said “it also has features that allow them to take photos.”
The official said the steps include verification of teachers’ attendance, students strength, inspection of classrooms, ensuring basic amenities on the campus and students’ safety.
“Every visit recorded is also tagged with a GPS location for effective support on ground level,” he added.
The application will be linked to the Education Management Information System (EMIS), a common online platform linking schools, teachers and the government.
In addition, authorities have decided to create a new system for the convergence of several departments like District Institute of Education and Training, Differently Abled Welfare Department, Social Welfare Department, Adi Dravidar Welfare Department with School Education Department.