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"Educmaster Platform: The Digital Revolution at the Service of Schools"

Numérique
Educmaster Platform Educmaster Platform

Launched in 2018, Educmaster, an innovative school life management platform, marks the digital revolution in Benin. This platform has become an essential tool in the Beninese education system, with proven results.

Par   Isidore GOZO, le 24 déc. 2024 à 09h25 Durée 3 min.
#Educmaster Platform
On Wednesday, December 18, at the public primary school (Epp) of Gbégamey, in the 11th district of Cotonou, the school principal seems absorbed by her computer. Aware of the importance of the task at hand, she is meticulously entering the personal information of some of her students from the initiation class (CI) onto the "Educmaster" platform. “I am entering the information of the CI children, and it takes time because most of these children do not have a birth certificate. I have given their parents a deadline to provide me with this crucial document to speed up the process,” explained Bénédicte Flore Aguiadaho, who added that she is only 25% through the work. In addition to the children in the initiation class, the information for other students and staff at her school has already been entered into the "Educmaster" platform database. “Our role is to register and enter all our students and staff in the platform's database. This allows us to track their progress,” revealed Bénédicte Flore Aguiadaho.

Implemented by the Ministry of Secondary, Technical Education, and Vocational Training, the "Educmaster" platform has been adopted by all public and private middle and high schools in Benin, which must enter all school-related data, including the management of teaching and non-teaching staff, student headcounts per class, timetables, transfers between schools, new registrations, absences, and more. In other words, this platform is now the main tool through which local and national authorities access all data on the education sector, school by school.

Six years after its implementation, the platform has addressed many challenges related to the education system. In an interview, Yvonnick Victorin Aza-Gnandji, Director of Information Systems at the Ministry of Secondary, Technical Education, and Vocational Training, stated that this platform has improved the governance of the education system. “In the recent past, we experienced some unorthodox practices. One such practice was the fraudulent promotion of students to higher classes. Today, the platform manages both the students' curriculum and the teachers' progress, including their timetables. The administration can now easily access all information related to teachers’ performance,” he explained. He added: “When a student transfers from a private to a public school, or vice versa, if the transfer is not done through the platform, no school will accept them. Parents must ensure that their children's digital transfer is completed.”

Yvonnick Victorin Aza-Gnandji emphasized that the advent of this platform has had a significant impact on the education system. It helps manage Aspirants to the Teaching Profession (Ame), remotely monitor teachers' attendance, whether they are state employees or not, and address time-wasting issues. “In the past, some teachers would skip classes at will without consequences. There wasn’t even a mechanism to make up for lost hours. The students suffered. Today, such practices are in the past, which contributes to better academic results,” he explained, adding that the platform also allows for remote monitoring of educational activities and responses to certain requests, even outside working days.

New Version

The platform is continuously evolving, and the challenges associated with its use remain minor. Bénédicte Flore Aguiadaho noted that correcting poorly filled-out records for students or teachers can sometimes be difficult. “Each time, we have to escalate our complaints to the focal point before getting a resolution,” she said. For Yvonnick Victorin Aza-Gnandji, only authorized personnel can make corrections on the platform for security reasons.

He took the opportunity to announce that a new version of this platform will soon be available. As technology evolves rapidly, it is important to update the platform to enhance its security. “A parent with multiple children can create an account on the platform and monitor the progress of each of their children. Previously, we only uploaded the end-of-semester grades. With the new version of the platform, we will not only upload the semester or term averages but also the individual grades, and the platform will automatically perform the calculations,” he explained. The Director of Information Systems at the Ministry of Secondary, Technical Education, and Vocational Training clarified that other innovations will follow, as the needs continue to grow and the data being handled today evolves rapidly, creating new demands.

This article was written as part of the regional journalism grant on IPN organized by the Media Foundation for West Africa and Co-Develop.

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