This article originally appeared on MessageMedia.

From sending automated absenteeism alerts to students and their parents, managing staff rostering, communicating with students and parents at scale, to sending exam reminder alerts and important information in an emergency situation, SMS can help your school or university save time and money.

In a sector reliant upon regular attendance and an effective relationship between teacher and pupil, education is a great candidate for the efficiency gains and communication improvements that can be achieved through the implementation of SMS.

Absenteeism alerts: improve student attendance 

Students can develop a habit of not attending classes for a variety of reasons, leading their grades to drop and other potential problems down the track. MessageMedia provides the tools for education providers to send automated alerts to parents if their child has missed class for more than a set number of days, thus helping to prevent casual student absenteeism.

MessageMedia also enables attendance systems to send a text message to the student directly, helping them to identify their own behaviour and make the necessary changes to get back into the classroom and learning once again.

Using our two-way SMS gateway also allows parents and/or students to give the school advance notification of their absence in future.

• SMS is a simple and cost-effective way to notify parents of their child’s unexplained absence from class
• Also allows students to be contacted directly, so they are aware of their behaviour
• Two-way SMS gateway technology means parents and/or students can reply to absenteeism alerts and give advance warning of any future absences

Student and parent communication

Schools and universities are highly dynamic environments and subject to regular changes, which can range from class cancellations, venue changes and special events which require notifiaction of many people at once to ensure smooth operation. SMS enables you to send highly cost-effective, bulk SMS broadcasts to your entire school community (or a selected list of people) in just seconds, helping keep everyone up-to-date with class cancellations, classroom changes, upcoming school events and any other important pieces of information.

This assists student communication and also parent communication in the form of sending enrolment updates, school fee reminders and student progress reports, giving everyone a greater sense of belonging.

• Bulk SMS broadcasts allow you to communicate with entire school community or just select individual about class cancellations, venue changes and upcoming events
• Keep parents (and students) updated on enrolment information, school fees etc
• Messages are delivered in seconds and can be scheduled for sending at specific times
• Delivery verification and read receipts allow you to track who has received and opened your message

Exam reminder SMS for top marks

Faced with a busy schedule juggling study, work, family and a social life, students of all levels can sometimes forget the most important dates in the academic calendar – their exam dates.

Send automated text messages to a select group of students at pre-determined timeframes leading up to their examinations, ensuring they don’t forget and helping them to achieve the highest possible marks for their subject!

• Send automated exam reminder SMS alerts to selected groups of students at pre-determined times leading up to their examinations
• Improve exam attendance and help students achieve the highest marks possible

To find out more about MessageMedia and how Pact IT can help, please contact us today.