Using ICT Effectively in Schools for Better People Management

School teachers and students were among some of the most heavily impacted groups over the last two years. With education systems having to adapt to hybrid learning environments and senior students, in particular, missing out on some of the positive milestones that come with finishing secondary study, taking the time now to review your school’s ICT systems is a smart way to be proactive in ensuring 2023 is an efficient and rewarding year for your teachers and students. This article outlines how schools can use ICT effectively for better people management. Keep reading to see how your ICT systems stack up.

Review your current systems for utilisation rates and double ups

A school can have the best systems in the world to manage teachers and students, but if these systems aren’t being used, the school and systems users won’t realise a return on the investment. The first steps in ensuring your school’s ICT systems and hardware are adequate is to review each system. As part of this initial audit, school leaders should review:

• Current technical and operational capabilities available in the systems and hardware.
• The impacts the systems and hardware, when used, are having on teaching, administration and management, and most importantly, learning outcomes.
• How and why the decision was made to implement the current systems.

When it comes to effectively managing teachers, an effective database should provide a central point for teachers to manager their workload and communicate with students and parents, while also being able to complete other tasks such as planning lessons, marking exams and assignments, and sharing information and resources amongst teachers. In short, an effective database should be able to help teachers complete many tasks, or at least integrate with a schools existing systems to provide a seamless experience and more efficiency for teachers in managing their day-to-day workload.

Check if your teachers are saving time with your current student database system

As part of your school’s ICT systems and hardware review, the student database system should be reviewed to determine if it’s being used by teachers and if it’s offering time savings. For example, if your school has a comprehensive database system that is used by the business office and available to teachers, but excursions or lessons are still planned using Excel spreadsheets, investigate further to understand why teachers aren’t using the database. In some cases, teachers may not have had adequate training and don’t know how to use the system to save time or they may understand the system and be resistant to change. No matter what the reasons are for teachers not using your student database, clear communication of the system’s benefits along with short and engaging training sessions can help to increase utilisation rates, provide efficiencies for teachers, and create more detailed and reliable records.

Access education-specific solutions with Quadrent

People management is more important than ever, especially as teachers and students adapt following the impacts of COVID-19. Conducting an ICT systems audit and ensuring the right systems are in place along with high utilisation rates can help teachers to manage their workload more efficiently, assists with more accurate management and administration of teachers and students, and ensures a school is always ready to adapt and continue improving. This not only makes your school a great place to work, which can positively impact teacher retention rates, but it also makes administration and management efficient and seamless.

Quadrent’s asset leasing and financing solutions for the education sector help schools ensure they always have the best systems and hardware available for their teachers and students. Contact Michael Adams today to learn more about how Quadrent’s solutions can support your school in strengthening its people management.