Shala Darpan Rajasthan Education Portal

शाला दर्पण राजस्थान | Shala Darpan Rajasthan: Digital Initiative for Education Revolution

Managing over one million and a half schools and about two hundred-five million students through the Indian educational system presents a significant challenge. This has included issues related to bureaucracy delays, lack of transparency and communication and between the educational institutions, the parents and the government. The advent of digital technologies to assist with the management and administration of the education system provides a new opportunity to meet these challenges through Shala Darpan.

What is Shala Darpan?

Shala Darpan represents the first initiative of the Ministry of Education, Government of India, to develop an e-Governance platform for administering and managing all schools digitally. It is an online portal designed to be a single central repository for managing and administering all schools and the activities associated with them. In this document, we will explore what Shala Darpan is; what it has to offer; the success it has experienced thus far and provide guidance on how to access and use it to improve one's educational experience.

Shala Darpan digital platform functions as a centralized digital dashboard that serves various purposes for different stakeholders. For the government, Shala Darpan is a monitoring tool. For School Administrators, Shala Darpan is a management and communication support system. For Teachers, Shala Darpan is an academic record keeping/support system. But most importantly, for Parents, Shala Darpan opens a window to their child's academic world and allows them access to their child's educational development.

Shala Darpan is the first step in the larger initiative called Digital India, which uses technology as a means of making educational administrative processes more accountable and to make it easier for parents to monitor their child's education.

The launch and implementation of Shala Darpan has created a chain reaction of benefits, with Shala Darpan benefiting every stakeholder in education.

Key Features

Benefits to Parents and Students:

• Real-Time Communication and Information: Parent can obtain real-time communication with the teacher without having to wait for Parent-Teacher Meetings (PTMs). By using Shala Darpan, parents are able to access real-time information on their child's daily attendance, thus ensuring that their child is not missing any class. The importance of obtaining this type of information cannot be overstated.
• Academic Tracking: Parents can monitor their child's academic progress at the click of a button, through access to his or her report card (grades, assignments, project marks, and teacher comments). This tool makes it possible for parents to intervene quickly if their child is falling behind in a subject.
• Communication: The platform typically has messaging capabilities to enable direct communication between parents, teachers, and school administrators, thus removing barriers to communication that previously existed.
• Transparency and Clarity on Fees and Finances: Most schools use Shala Darpan to display their fee structure and accept online payment, thus facilitating easier payment and providing parents a transparent view of the fees charged by their child's school.
• School Activity Information: Parents can see what is happening at their child's school, such as school holidays, tests/exams, reminders to parents about important dates or events, and other communications from the school, which helps them stay connected to their child's school's community.

For Teachers and Educational Administrators:

• Streamlined Administrative Management: Because Shala Darpan automates many of the administrative tasks that teachers and school administrators have to complete (i.e., creation of student registration, report card generation, employee records maintenance, etc.), this reduces the amount of time they spend on paperwork.
• Streamlined Reporting of Data: Schools no longer have to compile data for government reports by hand; instead, they may update data about their school to the Shala Darpan database, which will save a great deal of time and provide accurate data on which to report.
• Classroom Performance Analyses: Teachers can perform classroom performance analyses to identify gaps in learning and adjust their teaching strategies accordingly.
• Simple Leave and Attendance Management: The management of teacher attendance and leave requests is simplified using Shala Darpan, creating a more efficient and organized work environment.

For the Government and Educational Policy-Makers:

• Data-Driven Decision Making: Shala Darpan is a centralized repository for authentic data regarding student enrolment and attendance patterns, teacher-student ratio to infrastructure availability, and learning outcomes; using this information will enable Government to formulate effective policies related to education, as well as allocate resources efficiently and effectively to Third World Countries where the need for Education is greatest.
• Enhanced Monitoring & Accountability: The Government Agencies will be able to monitor the level of performance of the schools throughout their respective states/districts and identify those schools which are performing below an acceptable standard, thereby ensuring that both funds and projects/ schemes are being utilised correctly.
• Bridging the Gap of Equity: By providing a single platform for all schools in India, including remote and isolated areas, Shala Darpan will ensure that these schools maintain a minimum standard of Education and Infrastructure provision therefore helping to fulfil the universal goal of Educational Equity.

Some Notable Achievements/Contributions of Shala Darpan Since Its Inception

Shala Darpan has made remarkable progress and reached major milestones proving the programme's success.

• Universal Acceptance: The Shala Darpan platform has been successfully implemented, using thousands of Schools within KVS, NVS & CBSE systems, benefiting Millions of Students and their Families.
• Fewer Paper Forms: By moving away from the use of manual paper-based processes to the use of electronic digital records, the amount of paper used by Schools has been drastically reduced thus increasing their ability to operate in a more environmentally sustainable manner as well as making them more efficient.
• Empowerment of Parents: The greatest achievement of Shala Darpan (School Gallery) is the parent empowerment by enabling the parents to take an active interest in their children's education. The Shala Darpan (School Gallery) empowers parents to have a voice and to be accountable for their children's education. Because parents now have better visibility and knowledge of what happens in their children's schools, this has led to greater levels of accountability from the schools.
• Increased Attendance and Enrollment: The ability to easily track attendance has increased student attendance and how many students are regularly in class. Additionally, the Shala Darpan (School Gallery) data allows schools to address student dropouts, and also has helped schools identify students who may be at risk of dropping out.
• Standardisation of Processes: The introduction of Shala Darpan (School Gallery) has allowed for the standardisation of administrative and educational processes within a large and varied system of schools.

How to Use Shala Darpan (School Gallery)

Shala Darpan (School Gallery) is an easy to use system that provides parents with the ability to track their child's education in a simple step-by-step way.

Step One – Create a Username and Password

• Go to the official Shala Darpan (School Gallery) website (e.g., shaladarpan.nic.in or a specific portal for your school, such as kvsangathan.nic.in).
• You'll find buttons for "Parent Login" and "Student Login" on the Shala Darpan (School Gallery) homepage.
• If you are a new user, you must first create an account by doing the following:
• You need your child's unique Student ID (provided by the school).
• You need the student's Date of Birth.
• Additional Necessary Information Such As an Admission Number or Registered Mobile Number.
• Creating Your Credentials: Once you verify your information, you will be asked to create a username and password. You will also probably be required to link your mobile number and email address for OTP verification and alerts.

Step 2: Accessing The Dashboard

When you log in, you will be presented with a user-friendly Dashboard. This is your main page of access to all of your schools portals.

You will see the following tabs on your Dashboard :

• Your Profile: You can view & update your student’s profile.
• The Attendance Tab: A calendar or table that shows your student’s daily attendance & indicates whether they were present, absent or on leave each day.
• Your Student’s Marks/Assessment Tab: You can view your student's marks by unit test, terminal exam or assessment. You can also view and download detailed report cards.
• The Fees Tab: You will see the fee structure, due dates for fees & you will see the history of what you have paid. Most fee portals are integrated with payment gateways, allowing for online payment of fees.
• The Circulars Tab: A central noticeboard where schools post notices & announcements to the entire student body. You will also see your school’s event calendars & holiday lists on this tab.
• The Homework/Assignments Tab: This is where teachers can upload information regarding daily assignments & projects.

Step 3: Accessing Key Information

• The School Information Tab: General information about your school & all faculty & facilities.
• To Make Sure You Are Attending: The 'Attendance' tab lists whether or not you have been present at school for each of the months during a year.
• To Access Report Cards: The 'Examination' or 'Report Card' section contains your report cards. Click on the appropriate exam you are interested in (for example, Term 1 or Annual Exam) and download the report card.
• To Make a Payment: The 'Fee' section shows you the amount of money owed by you, and explains how to make an online payment, either by Net Banking or through a Debit/Credit Card or UPI.
• To Read Circulars: The 'Circular' or 'Notice' section on the main dashboard lists all recent announcements made by the School with date.

Troubleshooting Issues

• For Forgotten Passwords: Click on the link 'Forgot Password?'. You will need your Mobile Number or Email Address to receive an OTP (one-time password) and reset your password.
• For Wrong Student Details: When you try to register your details as a student, if an error is shown that says that the details provided are wrong, ensure that you have entered the correct Student ID and Date of Birth before contacting the School administration for a solution.
• For Missing Data: If there are missing items like your attendance and/or marks, please remember that it usually takes time for the Teachers to enter all the relevant data, so there may be a delay in updating it.

Looking Ahead – The Challenges and the Future

• Digital Divide - Addressing the need for equal access (in terms of both device and connectivity) in rural areas will be the biggest challenge for some time to come. Where there is no access to technology, there is the risk of students in the most disadvantaged communities (low, middle, high income) being excluded from the benefits of technology – and thus the opportunity to succeed.
• Analytical Data – The opportunity for the future is to utilise AI and Machine Learning to exploit the large amount of data that has been and will continue to be collected. Instead of merely monitoring student performance, machines will be able to make accurate predictions which will enable the use of proactive and personalised learning supports for students.
• Further Integration – One of the primary goals of the implementation of the service will be to bring together, as much as possible, other government educational services and systems. This will create a single and seamless digital ecosystem for a student’s whole educational journey.
• Digital Literacy – One of the more critical pieces for the success of the platform is to increase the level of digital literacy for the main stakeholders (students, parents, teachers) within the system (particularly in rural areas), so there is a better understanding and greater utilisation of the full potential of the platform.
• Cybersecurity – With the increasing focus on the portal, it is becoming increasingly important for the portal to have strong cybersecurity protocols to protect sensitive personal and academic information of millions of students, and to continuously adapt its protocols to protect against any potential security threats.