At a time when schools across the country have been shut as part of measures to fight the coronavirus global pandemic, Integrated Data Systems (IDS), an ICT Services Provider has launched its free online virtual classes for schools across the country.

The e-learning platform which will be provided to the schools for free for the next three months will bring the classroom experience into living and bedrooms of both students and teachers.

According to the Chief Executive Officer of IDS, Nii Addo Tetteh, the platform will provide every significant aspect of school administration to both students and teachers while at home.

With 19 featured modules ranging from virtual classes, online testing, homework/assessments, automated fees and billing, report cards, staff management, mobile app for parents, attendance, GPS tracking, notifications among others, Mr. Tetteh insists school heads, teachers, students and parents now have a lifeline to facilitate teaching and learning, as this tool mitigates the effect of the current pandemic the world is faced with.

“The good thing about this platform is that it does not require any hardware or special connectivity. It’s a static platform where the teachers will engage the students within the specific instructional hours, just as they do in class, teach and learn within the same curriculum and subject areas,” Mr. Tetteh said at the launch via zoom.

“Now more than ever we cannot downplay the question of digital transformation within the educational space and has therefore become critical that our institutions scale up, and that is why this tool will empower our institutions now and beyond. The future of education in Ghana and Africa as a whole will be hinged on technology and that’s the more reason why we need to act now. As earlier announced during the product demonstration, we are giving this system to all interested institutions for their operations at this time at no cost – our package will include hosting fees as well as setup and staff training cost,” he added.

Why Free?

Explaining why the e-platform will be free for the next three months, Nii Addo Tetteh said the COVID 19 has put on parents, businesses and schools an enormous financial pressure which his outfit would like to minimize at least for the time being.

“I understand perfectly what parents are going through in this difficult time. Even though we are in business to make money, we believe we must, at this crucial moment put the interest of potential clients first before any other thing,” he said.

Providing details on how the platform works, Mr. Tetteh said there is a complete administrative platform that provides heads with automated workflow from lead generation, admission test result publication, admission completion of successful candidates Automatic fees and billing, cashless  payments and more through to when your ward graduates.

“There is also the teacher management module that provides the teacher’s data, the teacher performance analysis, teacher’s self-appraisal, syllabus management, class administration, assessments and grading system as well as examination modules,” Nii Tetteh noted.

He said there is also an integrated Mobile App that provides parents with detailed updates and also interact with the schools on their wards, other benefits includes access  to class timetables, notifications & alerts, homework and homework submission status, attendance, GPS tracking, extra-curricular activities, exam time table and student’s all round performance.

Directly from this portal, students and parents will be able to know how wards have performed over previous periods and take appropriate corrective actions for the future using our data visualization tools.

 How will it work?

On how his outfit will engineer the entire project if a school subscribes to it, Nii Tetteh said IDS will provide the platform for the interested schools and assist them to migrated data, after which IDS proceed with staff training to enable them take charge going forward, these activities can be coordinated virtually on on-site as the situation will demand

IDS will provide support as and when it is needed, he re-iterated, adding, that we are moving to the next phase of education which will be mainly digitized.

He said this platform can be used during and after the COVID 19 pandemic.