Schools experiencing some performance issues with MyEducation BC should expect some improvement soon, said the official charged with rolling out the new student information system in School District 43.
Stephen Whiffin said SD43 is experiencing the same slowness with the $95 million student information system as have other districts but he said the Ministry of Education has been responding with improvements.
But high schools will have to do interim report cards manually and there won't be automated call outs for missed classes for high schools that use the service until the new system gets up to speed.
"The issue is that, again because of the system slowness there is some concern there would be escalating frustration level on the part of teachers."
However, Whiffin said SD43 elementary schools have already switched and shouldn't be experiencing any problems and the $225,000 put in this year's budget for the switch over is providing extra resources to help ease schools into the new system.
In September, when SD43 middle and secondary schools began to switch over, they experienced some slow performance so decisions were made to reduce frustration, and Whiffin said some students, parents and even teachers may be unhappy with the changes.
"It's just a bit of an adjustment process," Whiffin said.
In the case of automated callouts, clerical staff will have to manually update home contact information because of differences in how the older BCeSIS and My Education BC store the data, he said.
"The schools need to go in and do clean up," Whiffin explained. "Until they do, the file used for the system is not going to be accurate. They need to get around to it. That's where the system slowness goes in, it's a longer time to get that process complete."
Interim report cards will also have to be done manually, but Whiffin said they are typically informal reports that aren't required and the system will be ready in time for the first formal report cards in November.
"We're very confident that will be fine," Whiffin said, adding that the new MyEducation BC has a lot of potential uses but for the first year SD43 will be sticking with ensuring the most important functions are working efficiently for schools.
