Chapter 3

Literature Review

 History about school

 History about school in Bangladesh

 History about School Management System (SMS)

 School Management System in Bangladesh

 Socio-cultural impact of using SMS in Bangladesh

 Discussion on web-based solution for professional

SMS

 Professional solution with best features and

limitations

 Origin of SMS in Bishnopur High School

 Challenges with solution for Bishnopur High School

 Our solution for Bishnopur High School

Producing a literature review also be part of graduate and post-graduate student work.

Literature review is a basis for research in nearly every academic field which includes

the current knowledge including substantive findings, as well as theoretical and

methodological contributions to a particular topic. [ CITATION wik163 \l 1033 ] In this

literature review part of this project, the history about school and school management

system throughout the overall world and Bangladesh will be described where the

information is found from different journals. Different substantive solutions for SMS

system also will be described here with their features and limitations. The actual origin

of SMS for this specific educational organization also be narrated with the solution

based on their present situations.

3.1 History about School

A school is an institution that designed to provide learning spaces and learning

environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. The concept

of grouping students together in a centralized location for learning has existed

since Classical antiquity. Formal schools have existed at least since ancient Greece,

ancient Rome, ancient India and ancient China. In ancient India, schools were in the

form of Gurukuls. Based on British records it is found that indigenous education was

widespread in the 18th century. The subjects taught included Reading, Writing,
Arithmetic, Theology, Law, Astronomy, Metaphysics, Ethics, Medical Science and

Religion. During the British period, in ancient India, Christian missionaries from

England, USA and other countries established missionary and boarding schools

throughout the country. [ CITATION wik161 \l 1033 ]

3.2 History about School in Bangladesh

Under the British rule, in the present Bangladesh zone, Aided High School, Quazi Jalal

Uddin High School and Raja Girish Chandra High School were established in 1800, at

Sylhet. In 1971, we won a new country named People’s Republic of Bangladesh.

According to the research, K B High School (Mymensingh), Kakoli High School (Dhaka,

Dhanmondi), A K High School & College (Dania) are the three Bengali medium former

schools of Bangladesh which are established in 1971. The St Francis Xavier's Green

Herald International School (Dhaka, Muhammadpur) is an English Medium school under

the University of Cambridge International Examinations Curriculum which formed in

1972. [ CITATION wik162 \l 1033 ]

3.3 History about School Management System (SMS)

Now a days, information technology leads an important role in all organizations where

everything is computerized by reducing the paper based manual work. In this new era,
in education system also some changes have done by developing and designing School

Management System. [ CITATION Dha16 \l 1033 ] The number of students, teachers, and

staff are increasing day by day. Information related to all kinds of student details,

academic related reports, teacher details, staff details, course details, curriculum, class

details, book details, subject details, payment details and other resource related details,

are extremely difficult to manage manually. [ CITATION SRB13 \l 1033 ] School Management

System can make these tasks easier and quick by allowing to store all related

information in a centralized database, automated report generation, easy access and

manipulation of searching data etc. [ CITATION Kap13 \l 1033 ]

The first Management Information System (MIS) for schools was School Information

Management System (SIMS) which was initially developed from 1982 to 1983 by

Philip Neal, a teacher at Lea Manor High School. Then Bedfordshire Country Council

further developed the product, which began being used by other schools in 1984. SISM

Ltd. which is a commercial company, was founded to further develop SIMS in 1988.

[ CITATION Wik16 \l 1033 ]

But these types of non-integrated clerical and administrative applications limited the

possibilities for management support as the relationships among data could not be

analyzed. During the initial stages the main purpose of software development and
usage was to improve the efficiency of school office activities (Visscher, 1996). The use

of computers and technologies in educational institutes was mainly to store student and

personnel data (Carnoy, 2004). In the 1990s, the emphasis on using ICT to collect

educational data and to improve the administration of educational systems began to

increase in the developing countries. [ CITATION Mad13 \l 1033 ][ CITATION Mad14 \l 1033 ]

Student Management System (SMS) is now an integrated package that consisted of the

various other systems like- Student Information System (SIS), Student Data Systems

(SDS), Student Academic Information System (SAIS), Student Information Management

System (SIMS), Attendance Management System (AMS) or Result Management

System (RMS) etc. [ CITATION Aki14 \l 1033 ]

3.4 School Management System in Bangladesh

In the 21st century, due to the globalization, the use of the information & communication

technology has been playing a vital role. From 1997, the government has started the

process of developing a national ICT strategy for Bangladesh. [ CITATION Dig16 \l 1033 ]

The government of Bangladesh has declared the “Vision 2021”, before the National

Election of 2008, which targets to establish a resourceful and modern country -“Digital

Bangladesh”, by 2021 through the effective use of information & communication

technology. For developing the ICT sector, government takes some initiative actions
where IT education has been made compulsory in the secondary level and also has

implemented ICT act. According to the ICT act, every school should have a website

from where parents or students can find school related information, admission related

information, etc. Each school also be bound to send an email every month to the ICT

department and need to use a school management system to manipulate their school

related task which is also a part of making Bangladesh as a model to other country in

the ICT sector. [ CITATION Ban13 \l 1033 ] According to the government role, School

Management Committee should take an action to develop and integrate the SMS with

the main curriculum and main educational programs. [ CITATION Man08 \l 1033 ] [ CITATION

Sam04 \l 1033 ] For this ICT act, many schools are now using not only a website but also

their personal School Management System for maintaining their school’s data. [ CITATION

মো12 \l 1033 ]

3.5 Socio-cultural impact of using School Management

System in Bangladesh

The cultural factors of Bangladesh affect the values and norms in education life style.

So, the diversity of culture and learning styles should keep under considerations while

designing School Management System. [ CITATION Naz12 \l 1033 ] As, Bangladesh is a

developed country, technology is not available in daily life. So teachers are not used to
with technical mechanism. As a result, teachers may feel uncomfortable about using

School Management System through technology. Jaber and Moore (1999) and Martin

(2000) indicated in their findings that teachers need to be given time to plan and to

integrate ICT into the curriculum in order to achieve substantial effective integration.

Inadequate access to technology and not having enough time to access technology to

be familiar with it affected teachers’ competency and comfort level for ICT use (Dawson

& Heinecke, 2004; ManternachWigans, 1999; Moseley & Higgins, 1999). So, for using a

School Management system, teachers and staffs need to make a change in their socio-

cultural life by using ICT in their daily life. The ICT culture of one school also needs to

be changed. Infrastructure and hardware support and support from authority is essential

as more studies point to the fact that administrative and organizational support are key

factors for successful integration of School Management System in schools through

ICT. [ CITATION Sha10 \l 1033 ]

3.6 Discussion on Web-based solution for Personal SMS

Nowadays, computers are used to manage daily works in a school. School authority

uses computers to process academic assessments. Many schools have their own

system to manage students profile, monthly payment and assessments. Students’

information is obtained from the registration form completed by the staffs of this specific

school, when they registered new children for the first time. [ CITATION Jun08 \l 1033 ]

In the secondary school, several assessments are prepared to evaluate student

performance like- 1st term exam, annual exam, test exam, pre-test exam, model test,

attendance, etc. The class teacher then needs to determine student’s ranking in class

based on their performances. These tasks will be automatically done when the teacher

enters test marks. However, many other details also need to manipulate by SMS in one

school. [ CITATION Jun08 \l 1033 ]

There are too many information that need to be stored and manipulate by SMS. One

school authority may use a SMS through a third party, but, according to some research

paper, it is found that, between a third and half of the teachers said they did not find

SMS easy to use in general, nor could they easily retrieve data for all the students in

their classes or generate a nonstandard list of names by using third party SMS. Another

thing is that a data entry person of the specific third party, who does not know the

students might not spot errors that their own teacher would immediately see. Data

accuracy may be affected in the third party option. [ CITATION ROS \l 1033 ]

In one article that reports on one tiny “slice” of data from the 2012 New Zealand Council

for Educational Research (NZCER) National Survey of Secondary Schools, was

published the bigger difference between desktop and web based SMS, based on

comparing the teacher’s responses. There they noticed that, teachers were more likely

to use the SMS to carry out almost all the activities from anywhere, anytime, which is

not possible in desktop solution. [ CITATION ROS \l 1033 ]

3.7 Professional solution with best features & limitations:

There are thousands of applications in real world on School Management System. But

most of them don’t meet the requirement of the Bishnopur High School. Some of them

partially meet their requirements, but not fully. From all of them, 6 most popular school

management related application will discuss which are given below-

1. SchoolTool

SchoolTool is a free, open source, web-based student information system for a

single school. SchoolTool is also a framework for building customized

applications and configurations for individual schools or states. [ CITATION sch16 \l

1033 ] [ CITATION Nic16 \l 1033 ]

Here the outlook of this software with the best features and limitations:

Figure 1: SchoolTool SMS software

Best Features:

1. Customizable student and teacher demographics and other personal data

2. Contact management for teachers, students, and their guardians

3. Gradebooks feature for teachers

 4. Assessment data collection and report card generation

5. Class attendance and daily participation grades

6. Calendars for the school, groups, individuals, and resource booking

7. SchoolTool was made with Python, is largely secure.

[ CITATION sch16 \l 1033 ]

Limitations:

1. The core SchoolTool development team recommends new installations of

SchoolTool on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.

2. SchoolTool don’t provide the student’s payment management system.

3. There is no emailing process included in it.

4. It doesn’t provide subject based curriculum management process.

5. A Teacher allocation system based on different subject is not offered by

SchoolTool.

6. Bookstore management system and library system are not supported

here.

[ CITATION Nic16 \l 1033 ]

2. Gibbon:

Gibbon is an open-source “school platform” that not only deals with school

administration, but also provides features and services for teachers. It helps

teachers to collect, contact, understand and help their students. [ CITATION gib16 \l

1033 ][ CITATION Nic16 \l 1033 ]

Here the outlook of this software with the best features and limitations:

Figure 2: Gibbon SMS software

Best Features:

1. By using rich multimedia, it allows to plan the lessons and share them with

students and parents.

2. Assign homework, collect student work online and then tie it to a

Markbook for grading.

3. Display individual timetables for any student or teacher.

4. Create departments for Administration, allowing supporting staff to share

documents with all each other.

5. Convert test scores to a school-wide scale, automatically calculate a

value-added score for each student, based on data drawn from the

Markbook.

6. Take school attendance form individual students. Then generate school

absence reports and allow parents to view attendance data, allowing

closer monitoring for truancy.

7. Create notes outlining both positive and negative student behavior.

8. Support message formats include email, SMS and Message Wall.

9. Manage fees, billing schedules and invoices, and use them to generate

and email invoices, receipts and payment reminders.  

10. Use Data Updater to allow staff to keep their own details up to date.
 [ CITATION Gib16 \l 1033 ]

Limitations:

1. Software maintenance for Gibbon is quite technical, requiring coding

knowledge.

2. There is a lack of transcript feature.

3. It doesn’t provide subject based curriculum management feature.

4. There is no event calendar for maintaining school events.

5. A teacher allocation system based on different subject is not offered by

Gibbon.

[ CITATION Nic16 \l 1033 ]

3. FeKara

FeKara manages all elements of institution information system, including

students, courses, exams, teachers and employees. Fekara has ability to

manage all forms of educational institutes efficiently, including schools, colleges,

tuition centers & training centers. It is a free cloud software which can access it

on one’s phone, laptop or computer from anywhere. [ CITATION fek16 \l 1033 ]

Here the outlook of this software with the best features and limitations:
Figure 3: FeKara SMS software

Best features:

1. FeKara is a clean and modern school administration and management

software.
 2. FeKara includes a mobile app which can work on all tablets and

smartphones for convenient on-the-go use.

3. It provides student’s primary information, attendance, admission &

payment related process.

4. Course, batches, users, school events & teachers can also manage with

it.

5. There are email integration and internal messaging system for

communication.

6. Student/parent can be logged in for visiting any activities that available for

them.

[ CITATION fek161 \l 1033 ]

Limitations:

1. FeKara is limited by the amount of students, bandwidth, and storage. 

2. FeKara is free for schools as long as they remain under fifty students and

five teachers in their system.

3. A teacher allocation system based on different subject is not offered here.

4. Bookstore management system and library system are not supported

here.
 5. Student’s assessment management is not maintained by Fekara.

[ CITATION Nic16 \l 1033 ]

4. SchoolAssistant:

SchoolAssistant is the cloud and web based easiest school management system

which founded in 2016. It provides user-friendly dashboards with login access for

teachers, non-teaching staff, students, parents and management. [ CITATION

cap161 \l 1033 ]
 Here the outlook of this software with the best features and limitations:

Figure 4: SchoolAssistant SMS software

Best Features:

1. Complete end to end admissions management and provides better

response and communication with aspirants.

 2. Create examinations, record marks and publish online mark sheets for

students and their parents to see and record. 

3. Automatically pull attendance records of students.

4. Flexible class and period scheduling and successive tracking with

reference to subject and teacher allocation. 

5. Create and manage an online library of books and reference material with

access control.

6. Manage the comprehensive accounting system.

7. The SchoolAssistant software makes a financial management record

keeping a lot easier.

[ CITATION sch161 \l 1033 ]

Limitations:

1. It doesn’t provide subject based curriculum management process.

2. A teacher allocation system based on different subject is not offered by

SchoolAssistant.

3. There are no email integration and internal messaging system for

communication.

4. There is a lack of transcript feature.

5. OpenSIS:

OpenSIS is a free, open-source platform designed for K-12, trade schools, online

schools or state-run schools. For small and medium schools with a

knowledgeable IT staff, OpenSIS is the best suited. [ CITATION Nic16 \l 1033 ] It

created by Casey Adams and Bob Ghosh in summer 2007. It has been

downloaded from different servers for over 200,000 times and is in use in over

16,000 institutions worldwide that supports 49 languages. [ CITATION ope16 \l 1033 ]

Here the outlook of this software with the best features and limitations:
Figure 5: OpenSIS SMS software

Best features:

1. It offers the features that related to student’s demographics, attendance,

report cards and transcripts.

 2. Student’s, teacher’s and staff’s medical reports also can be maintained by

it.

3. The enrollment information of any student or teacher or staff also can

keep tracke of it.

4. Built-in messaging is another feature of it.

5. Through this OpenSIS, multi-school can be supported.

6. Progress and gradebooks for teachers are provided by OpenSIS.

[ CITATION ope16 \l 1033 ]

Limitations:

1. The free version does not offer discipline, class portals, billing, or state

reporting.

2. It doesn’t provide subject based curriculum management process.

3. A teacher allocation system based on different subject is not offered by

SchoolAssistant.

4. The bookstore management system is not provided by OpenSIS software.

5. Also the classroom management system is not included here.

[ CITATION Nic16 \l 1033 ]

6. scholastico

Scholastico is a more cloud and web based school management software which

is founded in 2014. From the about section of this software, it is highlighted that,

Scholastico “makes the job of running a school easier, so that school can focus

on learning”. Scholastico has four products that tackle specific tasks which

schools often struggle with: 1. after-school activity registration, 2. parent-teacher

conference signup, 3. student-teacher feedback surveys and 4. Secure online

student government election.[ CITATION cap16 \l 1033 ]

Here the outlook of this software with the best features and limitations:
 Figure 6: scholastico SMS software

Best features:

1. Provides event calendar.

2. Student portal for student information and records.

 3. Parent portal, where they choose their child’s name and can sign up

for any activities available for them.

4. Parents are sent email by this system for announcing the sign up

process. Parents just need to click the link in the email to automatically

sign in.

5. With Scholastico’s feedback surveys, a student gets one single link in

an email which authenticates them in a single click. 

[ CITATION Sch16 \l 1033 ]

Limitations:

1. No service for attendance tracking.

2. Academic reports and Admission management will not be supported

by it.

3. Payment system also missed here.

4. Faculty and staff management are not supported by it.

[ CITATION Sch16 \l 1033 ]

3.8 Origin of SMS in Bishnopur High School

As BHS is a secondary school under the BD education board, so it needs to use a

website for it and SMS for maintaining school management related data. According to

the Head Teacher (Akhter Hossain Khan) of BHS, science 2010, it had a website with

adequate information, but it is a matter of disappointment that, this site was hacked &

destroyed in 2015. Now they are creating a new one which is in an initial level with

insufficient least data (http://bishnupurhighschool.songzog.com/home.html), and

will be developed day by day. The new website of BHS is given below-

Figure 7: web site of Bishnopur High School

The authority of BHS also wants to develop a School Management System, parallel with

their website as the total students of BHS is increasing day by day, which makes it

difficult to maintain students’ data manually. In this situation, they asked for a new

school management system in 2016, for maintaining primarily their students and

secondarily their staffs and teachers information. And this is the origination of

eSchoolManager which is a School Management System based on the business and

educational curriculum infrastructure of BHS.

3.9 Challenges with solution for Bishnopur High School

To build a new solution for Bishnopur High School, some challenges need to be

overcome. Here they are-

1. The solution must include the entire requirements based on BHS business policy

and course curriculum.

2. The solution should be useful for BHS management.

3. Can be accessed from any device with any operating system.

4. Recover most of the problem area of the existing manual process.

5. Different reports for management and teachers must be provided.

6. The system should be cost benefited for the stakeholders.

 7. Need to provide a proper, reliable and secure communication channel.

3.10 Our Solution for Bishnopur High School

There are so many solutions for School Management System, among them six are

discussed above. For this discussion, it is truly visualized that, each has some

limitations with the business and the course curriculum policy of the Bishnopur High

School. So the solution for BHS not only needs to be meet the challenges (as

mentioned before) but also fulfill their own requirements based on their business and

course curriculum policy.

Through the solution, teachers and staffs will allow to access and manipulated their

tasks from any device with any operation system. The student related process like-

admission, payment, marks, result all will be handled by this. It will take school

attendance of individual students, then generate school absence reports and send

parents about the absence of his girl/ boy via mobile messaging option. Features of

bookstore management also will be included in it to store and maintain the information

related to main books and additional books. The new solution will allow staffs and

teachers to keep their own details up to date. Email integration and internal messaging
system for communication also will be included here. A teacher allocation system based

on different subject will be offered by this new solution.