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Managing Your School Remotely During School Closures

On March 15, 2020, Kenya's President ordered all schools closed as COVID-19 arrived. School administrators who had invested in digital systems suddenly found they could continue working from home. Those who relied on paper records and locally-installed software were largely unable to function. Here is what the experience revealed about remote school management.

What Remote School Management Actually Means

Remote school management does not mean running virtual classrooms (though that became important too). It means being able to perform core administrative functions — fee management, parent communication, student records, financial reporting — from any location with an internet connection.

During the COVID-19 closure, the administrative tasks that continued despite schools being closed included:

• Processing fee payments — parents still paying outstanding balances or paying in advance
• Communicating with parents about closures, reopening dates, and fee refund or deferral policies
• Preparing financial reports for the school board
• Processing staff payroll
• Planning fee structures for the next academic year
• Responding to parent queries about balances and statements

What Made the Difference: Cloud vs Local

The COVID-19 closure exposed the fundamental difference between cloud-based and locally-installed school systems more starkly than any marketing argument could.

Schools with cloud-based systems like Shule Link continued operating. Principals checked fee collection from home. Bursars processed payments. Bulk SMS was sent to parents about closure arrangements. Everything continued — just from different locations.

Schools with locally-installed software faced a difficult choice: risk going into a closed school to use the office computer, or simply stop all administrative work until reopening.

Parent Communication During Closures

The schools that handled parent communication best during COVID-19 shared several characteristics:

• They had accurate, up-to-date parent phone numbers in their system
• They used bulk SMS to communicate quickly with every parent simultaneously
• They communicated proactively — not waiting for parents to call, but sending updates before the questions arose
• They offered clear information about fee policies — whether fees would be credited, refunded or carried forward

Fee Management During Closures

One unexpected challenge was parents who wanted to pay fees during the closure — either clearing outstanding balances or paying in advance for when schools reopened. Schools with M-Pesa and bank integration could accept these payments automatically. Schools without it had no way to confirm or record them.

Lessons for Every School

COVID-19 was an extreme event, but school closures happen for many reasons: teacher strikes, floods, fire, political unrest. The lesson is clear: a school that can only function when administrators are physically in the office is fragile. A school with cloud-based management is resilient.

The investment in digital infrastructure is not just about efficiency in normal times — it is about continuity when normal times end.