Parents of students studying in government schools, many of whom are daily wage workers and people from lower economic backgrounds, are often not clued into their children’s academic performance.
To bridge this gap, the Government High School, Domlur, which has a student strength of 159, launched an Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) for parents on Saturday. This will ensure parents receive a pre-recorded telephone call about their child’s academic performance.
School principal M.J. Avadhani said the software will be used to communicate with parents regularly and give updates about parent-teacher meetings, the child's attendance, special classes and other details. The IVRS system was used on Saturday to inform those parents whose children have not been regularly attending classes.
Subramanya M.C., a carpenter, whose son studies in Class 10 said the voice message was extremely useful. “My son has missed classes and I was not aware of this. When I got a voice message from his headmaster about his absenteeism, I had a chat with him and told him that he must attend classes regularly.”
Although a similar feature is used in government schools by the headmaster to update the Education Department officials on attendance and to monitor the implementation of the midday meal scheme, this is the first time it is being used to pass on information to parents. Most private schools use messaging services to inform the parents about the school activities. The coming week, Mr. Avadhani plans to use IVRS to give a 5 a.m. wake-up call every day for 48 Class 10 students who have to prepare for the board examination. This initiative is part of the Teachers Community of Learning Programme implemented by IT for Change, an NGO with support for Cognizant Foundation.
Yogesh K.S., technical associate for IT for Change said that sending voice message for parents who cannot read or write will have more of an impact.
Call to enroll students
Mr. Avadhani would also like to use this facility to ensure that parents, who have children enrolled in Class 7 in nearby government primary schools, receive recorded message about the facilities of his school. “Most parents tend to shift their children to private schools at the high school level. I want them to know about the facilities of my school,” he said.
This school in Domlur is one
of the first to introduce
the system
