The introduction of software to Irish classrooms allowing parents to regularly monitor their child's progress at school could make the traditional parent-teacher meeting format obsolete, a parents organisation has claimed.
Ms Barbara Johnston, of the Catholic Secondary School Parents Association (CSPA), says she believes it "has the potential of establishing a communication system between school and home that could be described as a two-way radio link".
The software, called Pinnacle, involves teachers using hand-held computers in the classroom linked to online "student accounts" which parents could then access via the Internet or telephone. It has been costed at approximately €11,000 to introduce to a typical school with 50 teachers.
According to Ms Johnston, the introduction of the software to classrooms here would mean the traditional parent-teacher meeting could be replaced by more informal evening meetings.
"When you go to a parent-teacher meeting you get the opportunity to find out how your kids are doing. But you only get one day a year," she said. "One of the constant complaints we have is that parents don't know what's going on until it is too late.
"This software has the potential to allow for parents to be regularly updated on how their kids are doing, " she said. At a presentation of the software next month by Mr William Zaggle of US-based Excelsior software, which owns the software, the CSPA hopes to outline the areas which the new system would focus on.
Mr Pat Cahill, ASTI president, said he would be keeping an open mind on the new system, although he did have some concerns about what it would involve. "I'm not against progress and new ways of communicating with parents. I'm all for that, but given the obligations under Data Protection Act, for example, I would have to find out more about exactly how it works."