Are Parents Whatsapp Groups Harming Your School?

There is a surprising recent trend in many schools in India to use WhatsApp groups to communicate with parents.

Although free and easy to set up, it may be costing the school in numerous ways. School leaders need to consider the following implications before embracing this technological trend.

• Lack of control
  School leaders have little or no control over the conversations in these Whatsapp groups. They are very difficult to monitor and there is hardly any control over what gets posted on them.
• Lack of privacy
  Most parents do not want the photos and videos of their child shared with everyone in a group. Casualness towards the privacy of children is a serious issue in India. Progressive school leaders have a responsibility towards this.
• No content approval system
  School leaders have no way of approving what gets shared on the WhatsApp groups. The quality of the content is dependent on the individual teacher’s judgment, intentions and skills.
• Mobile numbers aren’t private
  The mobile numbers of all members of a Whatsapp group are visible to each other, allowing phone calls and private messaging to individuals. Often teachers and parents get disturbed (and sometimes even harassed) at odd hours. There have also been cases of groups of parents ganging up against a teacher or the school.
• Stress on students
• The effort of teachers tend to be judged

Possible solution

Banning Whatsapp groups in your school may not really work, as parents create them without the knowledge of the school. What schools need to do is provide a compelling alternative to parents. The need for parent communication and parent engagement platform is genuine.

School leaders need to consider other smartphone apps in the market, tailor-made to resolve all or most of the issues above. A platform that lets schools share and showcase student learning with parents privately.

Illumine helps the school with allowing to share individual updates and at the same time enable admin to control what goes to parent through the Approval system.

Want to try Illumine @ your school. Book a demo: www.myillumine.com or email: info@myillumine.com