STORY PREVIEW

2024

Substitutions in Schools

GEMS Modern Academy

Dubai

MENTOR

Eriyat Lakshmi Devi

Step 1 FEEL

List the challenges or problems in your surroundings (school,neighbourhood etc.) that bothered you.

Schools frequently face the issue of teachers not being available for class due to other commitments or from being absent. We observed that that our supervisors and admin staff had to a) manually set the substitution schedule daily which was an unnecessary waste of time, b) had no way to ensure the teacher actually made it to their class and c) teachers did not enjoy taking substitutions

State the problem chosen to work and why.

"Teachers and administrators waste time and face confusion while manually arranging class substitutions, often leading to overlapping schedules, miscommunication, and human errors." This issue was taken up as on the first day of school, my team and I observed that one teacher was given substitution in two classes and had to make several phone calls to sort out the issue. This error could have been easily avoided, which is why we aimed to create a solution.

Who were the people affected by the problem? What were their primary concerns?

The teachers of our school, supervisors and administration staff were all affected by this problem. Their primary concerns were that time and effort were being wasted on a daily basis for this problem and that teachers not being in their respective substitutions could lead to a safeguarding issue.

Step 2 Imagine

List ALL the different solutions you came up with.

We came up with solutions such as: a) automating with regular python code b) using a name randomizer c) using AI to allocate substitutions and using a chat bot to let the teacher have preferences.

Which solution from those listed above did you choose to implement and why?

We chose to implement "AI to allocate substitutions and using a chat bot to let the teacher have preferences" as it gave teachers more autonomy in their work and would be easier to interact with

Step 3DO

Describe very briefly the process of implementing your solution(s).

The process would begin with finishing the coding for the website, then introducing it among the admin staff for initial testing and finally implementing it with all teachers.

What was the result or impact of your project?

The result would be saving time and effort as well as reducing human error in allocating substitutions

How many people were impacted by your solution(s)?

What did the impacted people have to say about your project? Provide 2 quotes or testimonials:

Economics Teacher Ms. Sagarika (who manually allocates the substitutions) said that this idea would help her and the supervisors a lot and tested our project. She believed in its potential and wished for us to continue working on the code. Computer and AI teacher Ms. Veena (who helped us with the initial coding) said that she thought our idea was great and that our use of predictive AI was better than using just python alone.

What challenges did you encounter while implementing your project, and how did you overcome them?

On speaking with Ms. Sagarika, we understood that most teachers do not wish to take up substitutions as it wastes their free periods. Our original idea was to give teachers a choice as to whether they wanted to take the substitution or not. Due to this piece of information, we had to brainstorm on the working of our idea again.

How long did it take to implement your solution?

7-15 Days

Which global goals does your story align with?

Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Please explain briefly why do you think so?

This website will increase workplace efficiency by integrating Artificial Intelligence into school systems.

Step 4 SHARE

How did you share your project with your school and community? Who did you share your project with? What was their response?

We began sharing our idea with a computer teacher to ensure our coding was accurate. Then, we spoke to the teacher who was in charge of the substitutions to test our model. They responded positively to our idea and helped us further develop code and better our systems.

Approximately how many people did you share your story of change with?

0-10

Briefly share your plan to sustain the impact of your project?

We aim to sustain the impact by bringing our project to the whole school and once we prove it works well in our school environment propose it to other schools as well.

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