The Government Technology Agency (GovTech) and the Ministry of Education (MOE) has developed an app called Parents Gateway app. It was launched on Wednesday with the aim to improve communication between parents and schools at the primary, secondary and junior college levels.
This app will allow the schools to update the parents on programs and activities. Parents will now don't have to fill in consent forms as they can do it from the Parents Gateway app which was launched by the Education Minister Ong Ye Kung at Huamin Primary School, one of the first schools to pilot the programme.
Minister Ong said that as part of the Smart Nation initiative, one of the major benefits of this app is that the parents with children in different schools can use only one platform to complete administrative processes.
In addition, he said that apart from the parents this app will bring major improvements for the teachers.
"I really hope by using this gateway, we can cut down on administrative work for our teachers. This hopefully frees up more time for our teachers so that they can better focus on what they are good at, which is teaching," Minister Ong further added.
Even though the app is now available in selected schools, by the end of the year it will be progressively rollout to all schools subsequently. The app can be downloaded from Google Play and Apple Store and parents can use their SingPass accounts, SMS 2FA or OneKey token to access the app.
Quick facts about Parents Gateway app:
- Parents will receive information and can perform administrative functions.
- They will be allowed to provide consent for their children to participate in school activities.
- Completing travel declarations and updating contact details will be added by the end of the year.
- MOE will retain a paper-based system for those parents, who don't have smartphones or internet access.
- The app is compatible with iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and requires iOS 8.0 or later. The required android is 5.0 or above.
There are some parents, who already downloaded the app, in the feedback section they also complained about the issues they are facing.
