ToR for School Information management system (SIMS)

Background

SOS Children’s Villages in Ethiopia, a member association of SOS Children’s Villages International, was established in response to the 1973 famine. Since its inception, the organization has been committed to supporting children who have lost parental care or are at risk of losing it through childcare, protection, family strengthening, education, and health services. In addition, SOS Children’s Villages in Ethiopia provides humanitarian assistance to communities affected by conflict, drought, and other emergencies, with a particular focus on vulnerable women and children. The organization currently operates across eight regional states, namely Tigray, Addis Ababa, Amhara, Harari, Oromia, Sidama, South Ethiopia, Southwest Ethiopia, and Somali.

As part of its commitment to improving educational quality and promoting digital transformation in schools, SOS Children’s Villages in Ethiopia is implementing the Digital Horizon (DH) Project in the Tigray Region. The project aims to strengthen teaching, learning, and school administration through the integration of digital technologies in selected schools. By expanding access to ICT infrastructure, digital learning resources, and data-driven management practices, the initiative seeks to create a modern, inclusive, and technology-enabled educational environment. To support this goal, digital centers and classrooms are being established to provide students and teachers with access to modern computing facilities, internet connectivity, and innovative digital tools that enhance learning outcomes and foster digital literacy.

A key component of the Digital Horizon Project is the implementation of a School Information Management System (SIMS) to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency of both school administration and digital learning processes. The proposed SIMS will facilitate the digital management of core academic and administrative functions, including student registration and enrolment, attendance tracking, academic performance monitoring, reporting, communication with stakeholders, and data management. In addition, the system will support digital learning activities such as online content delivery, assignment management, assessments, learner engagement, and other essential educational processes.

Through this intervention, SOS Children’s Villages in Ethiopia seeks to establish a sustainable, technology-enabled learning and management environment that improves quality of education, increases operational efficiency, and contributes to better educational outcomes for students and staff.

 Objective of the assignment

The overall objective is to deploy a customized School Information Management System (SIMS) that will automate and streamline academic, administrative, and operational processes of SOS Mekelle School.

Scope of the assignment

The assignment encompasses the selection, customization, and deployment of SIMS that meet specific school and government requirements.

The supplier has the following scopes, but is not limited to, the following tasks:

• Prepare SIMS implementation plan in consultation with SOS Mekelle school and digital Horizon project team
• Conduct requirements gathering to identify further customization needs
• Customizing the selected system to reflect SOS Mekelle needs
• Ensure the system complies with education regulations, data privacy requirements, and school management for best practices.
• Identify required resources, timelines, and budget to support successful system deployment and maintenance
• Establish clear deliverables and expected outcomes for each project phase
• Ensure data security, encryption, and backup mechanisms are properly configured
• Coordinate user account setup and role-based access control
• Participate in system testing and technical validation
• Provide technical support and updates for 12-month warranty and SLA-based support and update thereafter
• Delivering comprehensive training to end users
• Provide detailed documentation and system manuals.

SIMS Minimum requirements

Business requirement

The system shall include below list of core modules

No.

Description

Key Features

1.     Supports digital teaching, learning, and academic collaboration.

o   Upload/download learning materials

o   Assignment creation and submission

o   Online and offline learning access

o   Virtual classrooms

o   Teacher-student collaboration

o   Sync offline data when connectivity resumes

o   Discussion forums and digital content repository

o   Managing academic year

o   Teacher assignments to subjects

o   Grades and subjects

o   Calendars

 

2.     Centralized management of student records and academic activities.

o   Student admissions and registration

o   Student profiles and academic records

o   Parent information

o   Session placement/assignment

o   Section change

o   Student id generation

o   Class and timetable management

o   Examination and grading management

o   Report card generation

o   Promotion and graduation tracking

o   Academic Performance and analytics

 

3.     Track student attendance, conduct, and well-being

o   Attendance reports and alerts

o   Behavioral incident recording

o   Counselling and intervention tracking

o   Parent notifications

o   Managing continuous assessments

o   Result submission system

o    Report generation system based on KPIs

o   Transcript and roaster generation

o   Grading system

o   Test portal and issuance system

 

4.      Enhance communication and engagement among students, parents, teachers, and school administration.

o   Parent and teacher portal

o   SMS and email notification

o   Academic progress updates

o   Event and meeting reminders

o   Complaint and grievance management

o   Communication books

o   Notice/Announcements

o   Feedback and suggestion submission

o   Communication history tracking

o   Linking to social media platforms  

5.      Automates financial and administrative operations.

o   Student fee management

o   Online payment integration

o   Billing and invoicing

o   Scholarship management

o   Staff records and payroll management

o   Leave and performance management

o   Financial reporting and dashboards

6.     Manages learning resources, digital content, and school assets.

o   Digital library and e-books

o   E-learning

o   Managing lesson plans

o   Uploading and downloading materials

o   Online pedagogy platforms

o   ICT equipment tracking

o   Inventory and asset management

 

Technical requirements

• Web-based applications compatible with major browsers including Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome.
• Enable access to SIMS via account-based authentication, having complex passwords and possibly secondary phone-based verification.
• The system shall provide configurable Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) that enables management of roles, assignment of users and permissions.
• Apply data protection measures, including encrypting data at rest, secure and redundant backup & disaster recovery mechanisms with defined Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO), and the use of TLS encryption to safeguard data in transit
• Operational Efficiency: Enables data-driven insights to improve school administration and resource allocation
• Activity logging capabilities, including detailed records of access attempts, permission changes, and execution of sensitive action
• Comply with data protection regulations
• Comply with secure software development practices and industry security standards
• Configure and deploy SIMS system in SOS owned/subscribed cloud platform or provide SIMS as Software as a Service (SaaS)
• Application patching service, version updates and application maintenance throughout the life cycle of the product
• Support data retention and export in standard formats such as MS Excel to ensure organizational data ownership and portability.

Deliverables

The vendor shall deliver below list of milestones, and each deliverable shall be subject to review and approval based on predefined acceptance criteria agreed during inception phase

• Inception Report (implementation plan)
• Customize and configured fully functional SIMS
• Installed and tested system (UAT sign-off)
• Data migration report
• Training materials and user manuals
• Provide training for relevant staff and stakeholders.
• System documentation (technical documentation)
• Go-live report
• Post-implementation support and patching plan
• Final project completion report

Implementation timeline

Activity, Timeline

Kick-off and Planning

Week 1

System Customization and Configuration

Week 2-Week 9

Data Migration and Integration Setup

Week 10

Pilot Implementation

Week 11

Full Rollout and Go-Live

Week 12

 Reporting and Governance

The vendor will report to a Project Steering Committee established by SOS Children’s Villages in Ethiopia. The committee will include representatives from SOS Mekelle school and Digital Horizon project representative(s).

The committee will:

• Provide oversight and strategic direction.
• Approve major deliverables.
• Resolve escalated issues.
• Monitor progress against agreed milestones and timelines.

Roles and Responsibilities

• SOS Children’s Villages in Ethiopia:
• Provide information on Current SIMS requirements.
• Coordinate internal stakeholders for testing and feedback.
• Assign steering committee from SOS Mekelle school and Digital Horizon project representative(s).
• Provide timely feedback
• Assign dedicated project focal persons
• Ensure infrastructure readiness if required

Vendor

• Conduct detailed system requirement analysis in consultation with stakeholders to clearly understand operational needs and translate them into system specifications. Based on the approved requirements, the vendor will customize and ensure that the platform is scalable, secure, and user-friendly
• The service provider should provide data migration plan and migrate necessary data to the new SIMS system
• Provide the system based on agreed specifications.
• Validate system
• Conduct user training and provide documentation.
• Ensure timely delivery, post-implementation support, and legal compliance.

Vendor Qualifications and Evaluation Criteria

• The selection criteria for the vendor will be specified in the RFP document. However, preliminary considerations include:
• Proven experience in implementing SISM systems
• At least 3 similar projects completed in different schools.
• Cost-effectiveness and scalability of the proposed solution
• Availability of ongoing, responsive, and competent technical support.
• Preferably a local presence in Ethiopia or a partnership with a local firm for onsite support.
• Demonstrated data security standards for backup and recovery protocols.
• Availability of lifetime technical support and ongoing system updates