South Point school has introduced a mode of online communication where parents can raise issues concerning their children through the school portal.

The message will directly reach the department concerned and, if not addressed, will be escalated to the higher authorities of the school.

The idea is to limit the need for guardians to visit the school office, a takeaway from the pandemic.

Guardians could raise issues concerning academics, transport, fees and IT services, and make applications for certificates online without visiting the school.

“Till now, guardians had to visit the school office for all kinds of enquiries and requisitions. But in view of the ‘new normal’ forced by the pandemic, we have worked towards providing a solution which will not only limit the need for guardians to visit the school office unless absolutely imperative but also ensure accountability and responsiveness in respect of the guardians’ communications with the school,” a notice from the principal says.

The school portal, introduced in April, is used to send notices to the parents.

The module is called “help desk” and it can be accessed through the school portal through the parents’ log-in credentials.

“During the pandemic we have noticed that parents had to face the hassle of dropping applications to school and in some cases they did not reach the departments concerned. This online communication mode will ensure more transparency, accountability and ease of communication for parents without having to visit the school,” Krishna Damani, trustee of the school, said.

The notice says that the issue raised by the guardians will directly reach the department concerned and will be addressed in a timely and effective manner.

“Escalation system is automatically built into the solution, in case a timely response is not sent to the guardians,” the notice says.

“If a parent has made a requisition and the school requires more information regarding the matter, the parent will have the option of providing it through the portal,” a school official said.

“Certificates or documents can also be provided online. Since we have a huge number of students, we are trying to streamline the entire system,” Damani said.

During pre-Covid times, parents mostly communicated with the school regarding things like if a student needed to leave the school early or if a student would not need the school bus. For issues like these the parents needed to send applications to the school.

During online classes issues related to bandwidth and connectivity, choice of subjects, fee status come up for discussion, a school official said.

Guardians also get notification if there is any update on their requests, the official said.