Every parent of school-age children will know the time-consuming repetition of filling out detailed permission slips for school activities, or frantically searching for paper and pen to write a sick note in the morning rush.
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Those days might finally be numbered, after the ACT government promised up to $10 million this week to build a new digital system for schools to help them do things more efficiently. Education Minister Shane Rattenbury said the three-year project would be funded in the June 7 budget.
It would allow schools to go digital for consent forms, payments and updating of student details. Rolls would be able to be marked online, and parents would receive faster notifications if their children were absent.
Student reports would also be digital.
School administration would also be improved, with better access to student data, new systems for financial reporting, board reports, payments and receipts.
"Parents and teachers are busy people and, as the world increasingly moves online, people expect to be able to perform routine administrative tasks quickly and efficiently from their computer or smartphone," Mr Rattenbury said.
"It is important that ACT public schools keep up to date with modern families."
Work would begin in 2017 and the new systems be implemented in schools across three years, he said.
Mr Rattenbury and Chief Minister Andrew Barr made the announcement while visiting Kaleen primary to mark "public education week". Forty students in the school's Dance Nation group performed for them.
