By Sanu George, IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram : It can identify the right career for your child, tell you when he’s mischievously missing from the class and message you his test scores as soon as he’s been handed the answer sheet. A software developed by three IT professionals promises to change the teacher, students, parents dynamics in Kerala.
Called Edualert, the software has been developed by US-based Keralites Akbar Narendran and Sanjay Nair, and Rajiv Viswanath who is based here.
“Edualert can give suggestions to a student and his parents as to which career suits him best based on his academic performance,” 33-year-old Narendran told IANS on a visit to Kerala to promote the software.
The modus operandi goes something like this. Details of a child’s entire academic history, his interests and extra curricular activities right from the first grade is fed into the software. “Through an analysis, it would reveal which is the best career option for the student,” Narendran said.
Edualert operations manager Ramakrishnan said the thinking of parents in the state for long has been that there are only two good professions — engineering and medicine.
“We have observed that many children for fear of earning the wrath of their parents unwillingly opt for either of the two most sought after professions,” said Ramakrishnan.
The basic version of Edualert is free for schools. Around 10 schools in the state have already given the nod to this unique product.
“In January, we will come again because we have got numerous enquiries from schools in some metros and Tier II cities. We will first do a demonstration of our product in front of teachers and parents,” said Narendran.
The software with add-ons version comes fairly cheap and it will cost 10 percent of the annual fee of a student, said Narendran.
“It includes a centralised process of taking attendance which takes only a few minutes. When done, an SMS will be sent to the parents of all those students who are absent. Likewise, the moment corrected answer papers are distributed, parents will get an SMS about how their child has performed,” said Narendran.
Another interesting feature is that the moment the child enters the school bus, he will be monitored and in case there is a traffic jam, an SMS alert will go to the parents.
“It took us two years to fully develop it as we did it in our spare time. We are now working on some other add-ons,” said Narendran.
Krishnamurthy Iyer, principal of the A.R.R. Public School, predicts the “revolutionary” software to be a huge hit in the education sector.
“We installed it just two weeks back and from the first look, it’s something unique. It is certainly going to improve the quality of students, parents and teachers. All the information on children and their progress would be available at a click of a mouse,” said Iyer.
However, a Class 12 student had different views on the subject.
“In many homes, the relation between parents and children is friendly. The software wouldn’t bother those kids. But overall, parents would always like to know what their ward is doing which is a little scary,” said the student, before saying that since his schooling was almost over, he had escaped.
However, a mother of a Class 10 student said: “Children need not be worried because this is a tool for their own betterment and for their good future. Just look into the positives and not the negative aspect that it will track children,” she said.
(Sanu George can be contacted at [email protected])