Keeping An Eye

The ParentEye app enables teachers and parents to connect with each other. The students' performance can be evaluated over the year and their daily movements can be monitored

Illustration by Shuvojit Dey; the team of Scientia Innovation

By Shevlin Sebastian

It was 5 p.m. on a Saturday. Renuka Menon was relaxing at her home at Kozhikode. In normal circumstances, she would have been worried, since her ten-year-old son Sashi had not yet returned home. But now thanks to the ParentEye app, she can follow his movements in the school on the mobile phone. Today is the Annual Sports Day and Sashi was expected to be late.

At 5.30 p.m. she observed that he had got onto the bus. Thereafter, she watched the movement of the bus. When it was about five minutes away from the house, Renuka stepped out and reached the stop just as the bus arrived.

“This is a very handy app,” she says. Thanks to ParentEye Renuka did not have to go through tension regarding Sashi.

This app has been developed by Shaiju CK, the Co-Founder and CEO of Scientia Innovation, a Bangalore-based software engineering company. “We have placed a blue tooth enabled chip on the identity card of each student,” says Shaiju. “And in every class and the common areas of the school, there is a blue tooth sensor. So a parent or teacher will know where a student is, at a particular time. Suppose a student moves away from a group, during the lunch break, a notification will be sent immediately to the class teacher as well as the parent.”

There are other features too. One notable advantage is that you are able to make a profile of each student. “The teachers will give a feedback regarding a student on the app, under each individual name,” says Shaiju. “Teachers can say he likes to draw or read or do maths. When a student does something often, most probably, he has the talent for it. Through this data, we can predict the skills of the child.”

Parents can get a good idea of the activities that are taking place in school. And when the teacher gives the homework, through the app, the parent also comes to know immediately.

Performances can also be monitored. “There are graphs which show whether a child's performance is improving in Maths or English over the course of a year,” says Shaiju.

Asked whether there is an invasion of privacy of the student, Shaiju says, “In most schools, there are cameras, even inside the classrooms. ParentEye is not looking at what the child is doing. It is just identifying the location.”

So far, the ParentEye is being used in 150 schools in North Kerala. Another 47 schools are using it in Bangalore and a couple of schools in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have it.

And most users are happy. Teacher Seena Sivaraman says, “This app is very useful and handy for day-to-day updates. We have gone almost paperless and saving a lot of time.” Says parent VA Paulson, “It has helped me to know how my child is faring in school.” Another parents Saneesh Parambath says, “I would recommend ParentEye to new-generation schools.”

In fact, Shaiju is indeed reaching out towards the new-generation schools. He has plans to introduce the app in South Kerala, Chennai and Pune and also in Africa. “We have already set up the app in schools of Ghana and Nigeria,” says Shaiju. “It is an exciting time for us.”

Shaiju is a former Vice President at JP Morgan Chase in New York. Some of the other companies he has worked in include Hewlett Packard, Qwest Telecom and Satyam. But in 2010, he started his own firm. “I am passionately in love with technology,” he says. “And I am so glad that, with the help of my brother Shaji, I could make an app that is helpful for teachers, parents and students alike.” 

(The New Indian Express, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode)