LUMUT: From weather-worn wooden huts for classrooms and office buildings, SMJK
Dindings in Pundut near here has emerged as one of the most IT-savvy schools in
the country.

  The 52-year-old school is the first to have a fully integrated School
Management System using radio frequency identification (RFID) technology that
enables it to record, access, report and manage performance records and data of
students and staff in real time.

  An attractive feature of the system, developed by Sibu-based company Perridot
Systems, is that it allows parents to track their children's performance and
print out e-report cards.

  The school's principal, Tiong Ting Ming, who initiated and carried out the
system after his transfer to the school in 1992, said all these functions could
be performed anywhere in the world through the Internet.

  "All that is required is the password and one's username. The system, however,
has pre-defined parameters whereby an individual can only access information
that is relevant to the person," he told reporters here during a visit by
Deputy Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Kong Cho Ha
yesterday.

  Tiong said the school was also using the system to track library loans,
disciplinary records, and as a monitoring tool to record students' punctuality
and whereabouts.

  "Each student has his own RFID tag. The student is required to scan it at
readers within the school to keep track of his movement.

   "The school and parents can confirm what time students arrive and leave, and
their attendance at each classroom session," said Tiong.

  He said past and present students of the school had helped set up the system,
including wiring up the school buildings with fibre optic cables.

  "All equipment were either donated or bought second-hand," he added.

  Commending Tiong and the school for their efforts, Kong said having the School
Management System had helped  to boost the school's reputation, and enrolment
had risen from 320 students in 1992 to about 800 at present.

  "The school's popularity is growing so much so that parents are insisting on
sending their children here," said Kong, who is also Lumut MP.

  He also urged Perridot Systems and the school to market the management system
overseas.

  "Software developed in our country are impressive but people have this mindset
that they are only good if other countries have used them before.

  "Therefore, the trick is to market them overseas first," he added.