SmartTerm, changing the way schools handle business

The education system of each country has the arduous task of ensuring that each public school is run to its optimum, with proper metrics to track the progress of each of the hundreds of students enrolled in each school, management of syllabi and other logistical issues. However with schools in the region being traditionally paper-based, managing even basic needs could be a logistical nightmare.

This is why 32-year-old entrepreneur Jayme Hoyte has dedicated her business, SmartTerm, to supporting the digitisation of educational institutions.

Established in 2016, Hoyte said SmartTerm aims to transform schools by providing a digitised platform that offers analytics with a focus on providing resources that would be key for data-driven decision making. The SmartTerm digital solution is currently providing its service to 1,028 schools across the region with the help of a list of partners including USAID and the Developmental Bank of Jamaica. It is in the process of digitising all education institutions in St Vincent, Hoyte said.

However, she said in TT more collaboration is needed between private institutions and government to optimise the logistics of managing public schools. She said with SmartTerm the entire public school system could be streamlined to allow government to make data-driven decisions on its education system.

“Imagine a child entering into school from kindergarten level, and from that age his or her information is entered into a system that is accessible to all the necessary bodies,” she said. “From that level as they progress through their school journey that information is taken with them from school to school, all the way to university. Now the government has that data and it can make informed decisions. It can make predictions about the future of education, the future workforce, which fields are more beneficial for the country and which are lacking in talent.”

The services provided don't just benefit schools in the long term. SmartTerm’s services include government portal creation, data analytics, learning management system development, consultancy and student information system development – everything needed to streamline how a school handles its business.

She added that SmartTerm also provides over 40 online education features for students to engage in their syllabi online and said it just launched its AI-generated lesson plans where teachers simply put in a topic, and a lesson plan is generated and made available in the event that there is a need to tweak the lesson to their needs.

She told Business Day the features in SmartTerm’s programme includes student and teacher attendance tracking, video conferencing, student management and grade book generation.

SmartTerm’s services are definitely needed in the school system as, according to Hoyte, teachers, principals and students alike are faced with time-consuming challenges in accessing and managing services from schools.

For example, she said governments in the region could take as long as 18 months to compile education-related data.

“This is too long a time,” she said. “Schools and governments need to have data in real time. Our platform provides software that marries all of the features together to assist schools with the execution of providing quality education,” she said.

Another pain point that SmartTerm had to address was improving time management for teachers.

“One of the things our teachers always mention is that they don’t have a lot of time. They spend a lot of time creating lesson plans and other things that would assist them in the classroom. With our platforms we can basically cut down on some of the time that teachers spend planning so they can focus on actually teaching.”

She added that common issues like having to print information for students, memos etc are also challenges for students and teachers alike.

She said as a solution, SmartTerm has a memo board that utilises group messaging directly to users’ devices.

“Everyone has their cell phone, computer tablets and laptops,” she said. “They can get their memos and all their resources can be uploaded through a resource portal for students so everything could be accessible online and it reduces printing costs drastically.”

She added that the information stored the service’s databases are encrypted and firewalled through Amazon Web Services to ensure data protection.

Despite its popularity regionally, Hoyte said SmartTerm is just getting its feet wet in TT. Hoyte, a resident of south Trinidad, said local public schools have given some push back because the product is not sanctioned by the government.

“At one point we had five schools on our platform but it has been challenging for some of these schools to maintain the platform, especially given the fact that it wasn’t something given to them by the government,” she said. “But we had a lot of private schools on the platform.”

She said one of the main challenges for schools, both private and public, is funding.

“Some of the schools told us that because it was not sanctioned or distributed by the government funding might be a challenge.”

She said the system is tailormade for each school so costs may vary but the service costs between US$5 to US$10 per student per year.

Hoyte W.O.M.E.N. means business

Hoyte isn’t just involved in education, she is also involved in “WOMEN,” an NGO co-founded by Hoyte and Lucia Cabrera-Jones, devoted to listening to and addressing challenges faced by female entrepreneurs.

“WOMEN is an acronym for Women Owned Media and Education Network,” she said. “This NGO provides a platform where we look at the issues and challenges facing women entrepreneurs and we utilise our pool of resources to deal with them from a multi-strategic approach.”

She said with the deluge of challenges facing women in their personal and professional lives, it could be a task to meet their goals.

“Our initial finding is that women want to be self-sufficient and they want to be self-reliant,” she said. “That doesn’t mean that in a marital household they want to be dominant, it simply means they want to contribute.”

She said WOMEN has found that entrepreneurship provides an avenue for women to achieve that self-reliance whether they are single mothers who want to sustain themselves and their households.

Since 2020, the NGO has also hosting branding and digital marketing workshops for local women to ​​show them ways to attract potential clients, and have been assisting migrant women in building start-ups

Last week, the group met with British High Commissioner Harriet Cross and discussed methods to collaborate to strengthen their relationship and deepen support for women entrepreneurs through workshops and courses. This follows the NGO's completion of the most recent Thrive Women Business Development programme completed in June, which taught women entrepreneurs methods to improve their small businesses and turn them into economic opportunities.

“We create strategies and programmes to help women develop successful businesses,” she said. “We also have other programmes as well, so if they are looking for encouragement, empowerment, advocacy or information WOMEN can help.”