Managing data is a challenging task for any organisation. Educational institutions should manage the data of all their students and staff alike. The data managed includes both administrative and academic. Imagine how challenging it would be if educational institutions with a high number of students and staff had to do it manually. The solution to this challenge is a management information system.
What is MIS?
Management Information System or MIS is software used to collect, store and disseminate information for making informed decisions that aid in the growth and development of educational institutions. The information is provided in the form of reports. It provides a wide range of reports, from performance to fee payment reports.
Now we know what MIS is, but why should educational institutions use this MIS and its reports?
- Informed decisions: Earlier, educational institutions had to manually go through the data, analyse it and then make decisions, which was time-consuming. Currently, with the advent of technology, making faster decisions is easier. MIS helps analyse the data in the system and generates reports that are precise. With the help of these reports, educational institutions could make informed decisions at a faster rate.
- Restricted access: With reports and documents maintained manually, restricting access to people is challenging. “DO NOT ENTER” or “RESTRICTED ACCESS” these mere words would not help protect the reports or documents from being accessed by unauthorised people. This often leads to data loss. With MIS, this is no longer an issue. MIS used in educational institutions allows only authorised personnel to access reports. For instance, students can access their performance reports, whereas they cannot access the administrative level reports such as fee payment of other students, staff pay etc. This helps in ensuring data security.
- Track performance: Educational institutions are for improving student performance. What good is technology if it does not aid in student performance improvement? MIS analyses the students’ past performance and provides analytical reports that help educational institutions identify the challenges. As a result, educational institutions help students overcome challenges and improve their performance.
- Data management: This is one of the vital functions of MIS. As specified earlier, it helps collect and store a vast amount of student and staff data. At the click of a button, one could easily access the stored data.
With everything being digitised, why prepare and store reports and documents? It is time to go paperless by implementing MIS in educational institutions. This helps save time, and institutions could focus on formulating strategies that help provide an enhanced learning experience to students. Several technologies have transformed the educational system or infrastructure. One among them is MIS. Educational institutions could implement ERP software that has MIS. This helps educational institutions to be effective and efficient. Institutions striving for students’ growth and development and effectiveness will need to use MIS.
