Education stakeholders have called for the adoption of digital report cards in primary and secondary schools to improve access to results, preserve academic records and prevent manipulation.

Some stakeholders, however, insist that hard-copy report cards remain important for tracking pupils’ academic performance.

They expressed their views in separate interviews in Abuja on Tuesday, outlining the advantages and challenges of both systems.

Lois Tofumi, a member of the board of directors of St Philip’s Academy, Abuja, said the school had introduced a PIN-based portal to prevent result manipulation and reduce errors during collation.

Ms Tofumi said the move reflected the growing importance of technology in education and the need to prepare pupils for computer-based examinations.

“The world is evolving into a technology-driven era. In the past, we heard stories of students using pens to alter grades or erase scores.

“Moving to an online portal eliminates those temptations and prevents manual collation errors,” she said.

She explained that parents and pupils could access results conveniently using assigned Personal Identification Numbers (PINs) on mobile phones or computers.

Although she acknowledged concerns about access charges, particularly among families with several children, she described the fees as affordable in view of the costs of operating the system.

Idris Alhassan, principal of Zinaria International School, said digital platforms enabled parents to monitor their children’s academic performance without visiting schools.

Mr Alhassan said the school had used a digital results system for seven years, allowing parents living outside Abuja or abroad to access their children’s academic records remotely.

He said the system ensured the preservation of academic records, adding that results could be retrieved and printed years after graduation.

“Even if you come to the school 20 years from now, the database can still provide the result for printing. The safety of that document for future use is another important consideration,” he said.

He acknowledged that digital platforms could initially pose challenges for parents unfamiliar with technology or without functional email addresses. However, he said schools could address such difficulties by patiently guiding parents until they became familiar with the system.

Mimidoo Tile, a parent in Abuja, also favoured digital report cards, citing their accessibility and durability compared with physical documents. She said that hard copy results could be misplaced, damaged or lost during relocation or domestic incidents, including fire outbreaks.

Ms Tile, however, identified password recovery and limited digital literacy as challenges associated with electronic report cards. She added that some schools provided access to digital results without additional charges beyond regular tuition fees, noting that the benefits outweighed the disadvantages.

In contrast, Onyinyechi Otie, an education stakeholder, maintained that hard-copy report cards remained more effective for monitoring pupils’ academic progress over time. She said physical report cards enabled parents to compare their children’s performance across terms and academic sessions, unlike printouts obtained from cybercafés, which could easily be misplaced.

Ms Otie expressed concern that such printouts might not provide the comprehensive academic history contained in properly maintained physical records. She also highlighted challenges associated with collecting report cards, noting that some underperforming pupils avoided collecting their results, while some parents failed to visit schools because of outstanding fees.

She advised parents to visit schools regularly to collect their children’s report cards and engage teachers directly to understand their academic performance and identify areas requiring improvement.

The stakeholders advocated a balanced approach that combines digital and hard-copy report cards to improve record-keeping, parental access, and monitoring of pupils’ academic progress.

(NAN)