Where it started.
The school kept its student lists in Excel, roll calls in notebooks and fees on paper receipts, and told parents one by one on WhatsApp. At every month end the office copied the same information into three places, and management waited several days to know unpaid fees by class.
The challenge
Bring student records, teaching and finance into a tool that teachers accept to use in class, that parents open on an entry-level phone, and that respects the report cards of the Senegalese system.
- No network in several classrooms at roll-call time.
- Parents with basic phones and no app to install.
- Report cards faithful to the official model: coefficients per stream, ranks, honour roll, council decision.
- Three interface languages, including right-to-left Arabic for Franco-Arabic schools.
- Data kept separate per school for a group of several schools.
What we built.
A hosted web application with one space per school, a parent portal that is added to the phone’s home screen, and an offline mode for roll call and marks entry. Mobile money payments are reconciled automatically and receipts sent on WhatsApp. A central console lets the group follow enrolment, attendance and collection across all its schools.
- Enrolment, re-enrolment and import of existing lists.
- Offline roll call in class, automatic SMS to the parents of absent students.
- Marks entry by subject and report cards computed on the Senegalese model.
- Fee schedule per student, cash-in with numbered receipt, reminders and mobile payment.
- Parent portal: absences, marks, homework, payments and report cards to download.
- Staff, contracts and payslips; canteen, transport, boarding, library.
How the project ran.
- 01
Scoping. Two weeks with management, the office and the accountant to set classes, the fee schedule and the report card templates from real samples.
- 02
Prototype. Every page built on sample data and reviewed screen by screen with the school before the server was developed.
- 03
Data migration. Import of students, parents and balances from Excel, checked on a sample by the office.
- 04
Launch. Training per role, access sent to parents by SMS, support during the first month.
What changed.
Indicators tracked after launch.
2 minutes
to take a class roll call, parents notified within the minute
Same day
to know unpaid fees by class, down from several days
3 languages
French, English and Arabic, for staff and parents alike
What made the difference
The parent portal was designed for a basic phone with nothing to install. Parents adopted the tool because it served them first: seeing an absence, paying an instalment, receiving a receipt.
Technologies
Next.js · React · Spring Boot · PostgreSQL · PWA hors ligne · API mobile money · SMS / WhatsApp · Cloudflare
