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ESHO: Providing digital solutions to school transactions

By Omiko Awa
10 December 2017   |   3:38 am
Desiring to proffer solution to recent incessant attacks on schools and students, Babajide Esho, the 25-year-old boss of Skoolkive, an online educational platform, has developed an application that enables parents monitor their children while in school.

Babajide Esho

Desiring to proffer solution to recent incessant attacks on schools and students, Babajide Esho, the 25-year-old boss of Skoolkive, an online educational platform, has developed an application that enables parents monitor their children while in school. This is not all. Parents can equally pay school fees through a single channel. The idea is for parents to do all school transactions as conveniently as possible, while tracking their children.

To him, the traditional way of distributing school results, whereby teachers physically give students their results, should be replaced with a more modern, technological and reliable form. Similarly, he said schools should begin to automate the process of sending vital information.

He said: “Automating the process would prevent the situation, whereby a student easily alters his/her result and other documents, as parents would immediately get school results from their laptops and such other devices, as soon as the school releases them. This also goes for anything happening in the school. All any busy parent need do is to go into the portal and check how his/her child is doing without visiting or calling the school.”

Esho explained that for parents to enjoy these facilities, their children’s school has to register with Skoolkive’s portal. “We work through schools, so a school has to approve what we are doing, tell us what they want us to do for them and we set up their system and then parents would begin to enjoy our services.

“It is a convenient way to pay school fees, as money sent to us goes through e-payment straight to the school account. We can also split the money according to instructions given to us. The package favours both school owners and parents, as it helps monitor school account and notify parents when to pay,” he told The Guardian.

The tracking application shows when a student is in school, when he/she clocks in and out, and when he/she leaves school premises for home. According to him, the application has a biometric feature, where a student’s bio-data is recorded, and then linked to the devices installed in the school.

“We are in a period where security is key, especially as no parent wants to experience the horror of having his/her child kidnapped,” he said. “The GPS tracker works in such a way that once a child clocks in and out of school, messages are sent to the parent(s) via text or calls informing them that the child has clocked in or out from school and where he/she is. So, if for any reason a child clocks out later than he/she should, parents can promptly call school authorities. Parents are signaled as soon as possible so that measures could easily be taken to check any danger.

“We are looking at a situation where at any point in time, a parent knows the whereabouts of his/her child. This could as well give you information about the child, while on his/her way home because even then some unpleasant things could still happen. But with GPS tracking, you will know where your child is. The tracker is like a pen attached to the school uniform or bag or any other thing on the child’s body. It is a device no one can detect except the parents.

“It is also good for school owners, as it will tell where a child is, who enters the school, if a child is in school or not without necessarily depending on the school register, which could sometime be altered when there is a challenge and put the school in a bad light.”

Both the GSP and the payment apps might appear too abstract for those not in tune with modern technology, and might also appear expensive, but the Chief Executive Officer of Skoolkive said this is not so.

According to him, logging into any of the platforms is as easy as using one’s phones or the computer; they are easily handled. And the cost? “The distance and amount being transacted determines the percentage charged. We charge between 0.5 and 1.5 per cent. There are different rates for someone paying for instance N50, 000 and another paying N2m. There will also be difference in the amount charged someone residing in Akwa Ibom and Sokoto State. So, it is a case of the farther one lives from Lagos, the higher the rate charged. But in all, we do not exceed 1.5 per cent maximum and our services runs across the country,” he explained.

On the security of money transferred and confidentiality of clients’ information and documents, Esho said earning the trust and confidence of clients remains tops on the list, adding that his outfit partners other money transferring outfits for security purposes, as well as maintain high confidentiality.

“We are in partnership with very secure gateway servers. They are across the country and have never disappointed us. We also maintain high level of secrecy, when it comes to information management, because we need to be trusted by clients,” he said.

He said: “Apart from the multi-faceted platforms, we also create values for schools and parents. We help them build healthy relationships and lessen the burden of chasing parents to pay their children’s fee. We help school proprietors get payment on time, as parents need not waste precious time in banks queuing and filling papers. With a click on their phones, they are linked up.

“Schools can also use the platform to pass vital and confidential information about any student to their parents. So, it removes the problem of sending letters that may not get to parents from schools, as our messages get to appropriate receivers.

It also saves school owners from fraud, as the apps notify them of who has paid or not. It is a win-win relationship for both parents and the school.”

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