The Nigeria Police Schools http://www.npfeducation.gov.ng/ are managed by the Directorate of Education, Nigeria Police Force. Currently there are 9 Police Secondary Schools and 79 Police Children Schools in 32 states of the Federation and the FCT.

The standards of the schools vary from one school to another with some schools lacking in ICT infrastructure and others having a remarkable infrastructure. But one thing in common among the schools is the way they manage their schools’ records: everything was manual.

The directorate which is located in FCT does not readily have access to the individual records. They usually depend on the high level reports sent from the individual schools.

Communication with parents was not also very effective and flexible. It was usually done through notice boards or newsletters.
Solution

In February 2014, a project to computerize the police schools began with 7 of the secondary schools. An online portal was developed and the 7 schools configured on the system. Digitizing the schools records started by configuring their classes and subjects. Template for uploading students’ information was distributed to the schools to populate the data which were mostly in hard copies.

Train the trainer workshop was organized with 2 staff representing each of the school. At the end of the workshop, the students’ information was uploaded with Police Secondary School Minna having the highest number of students of over 2000. The representatives were equipped and took charge of administering their application and training the remaining staff of their schools.

Since the application is online, Internet is a key requirement for access. Some of the schools already had their Internet solution. The remaining schools depend on 3G Internet by the telecoms.
Result

By the end of the term, the schools could generate digitized reports and statistics with a computerized result for their students. The Directorate now has access to accurate information at the finger of their tips.

Parents are communicated on their ward’s academic progress via SMS and they can log on through the portal to view detailed analysis of the records.

After the success recorded for the secondary schools, four (4) months later, 18 primary schools were brought on board and the train the trainer workshop undertaken. Later on 30 more primary schools were commissioned on the portal bridging a total of 54 schools out of the 79 schools.

Next Steps

So far, 25 schools are remaining and will be brought on board before the end of 2014/2015 academic session. With all the schools now online, focus will be on curriculum-based learning and assessment, computer-based testing (CBT) and an EMIS platform for the Directorate. The Directorate will then be able to get relevant reports and analytics of the schools instantly, view the schools on Map and deep dive into minute details of each school.

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