Can multiple guardians see the same child?

Yes. Each student supports multiple linked guardians with relationship type, financial responsibility flag, and per-guardian message preferences.

Does the portal work for parents without a smartphone?

Yes. SMS-only flows replicate the most important notifications (attendance, fees, results), and a low-bandwidth web view works on any browser.

Is the portal available in Amharic?

Yes. Labels, messages, and report cards render in Amharic or English; the guardian picks their preferred language at signup.

Can guardians pay fees directly?

Yes. Chapa is the primary provider; Stripe is supported for diaspora payments. Both produce reconciled receipts in the school ledger.

What is the best school management system for Ethiopia?

VISCO is a multi-tenant SaaS school management system built specifically for Ethiopian schools, with first-class ETB finance, Amharic, integrated adapters for Chapa, Telebirr, SantimPay, ArifPay and Stripe, MoE-aligned calendar, Ethiopian Calendar (E.C.) support, and parent SMS in the languages parents actually answer in (EN, አማ, AR, OM, SO, TI, FR, AA).

How does VISCO handle data for multiple schools?

Every record carries a tenant_id (school) and where relevant a branch_id (campus). Database-level row guards plus application-layer middleware ensure no cross-tenant leakage. Each school owns its data and can export or anonymise it on demand.

Which payment gateways are supported for Ethiopian school fees?

VISCO ships provider-agnostic adapters for Chapa, Telebirr, SantimPay, ArifPay, and Stripe, plus journals for cash and bank transfer. Configure one or several from /admin/payments-providers; webhooks are signature-verified per provider, idempotent, and produce ledger-friendly receipts in ETB or USD.

Can parents pay school fees with Chapa, Telebirr, SantimPay, or ArifPay?

Yes. Each invoice can route to whichever provider you have configured. Chapa, Telebirr, SantimPay, and ArifPay are integrated as hosted-checkout adapters; the parent portal generates a one-tap link and the receipt is reconciled automatically when the webhook arrives.

Can our staff add new dropdown options without engineering?

Yes. Any select field can be marked extensible. Staff press the inline "+" to add an option (e.g., a new guardian relationship type or a local sub-city). The new value enters a pending-approval queue and is auto-translated for Amharic if missing.

Does the AI assistant ever touch our production database?

No raw SQL. The assistant uses an allowlisted set of read-only analytics tools tied to your tenant. Bulk-impact actions always require explicit human approval; every query is logged.

What languages does VISCO support?

VISCO ships first-party support for English and Amharic (with Noto Sans Ethiopic typography). Arabic, Afaan Oromo, Somali, Tigrigna, French, and Afar are available through a Google Translate language bridge in the app shell. Arabic renders right-to-left automatically. Form labels and dropdown options can be authored in both English and Amharic side-by-side.

Does VISCO work for multi-branch / multi-campus school groups?

Yes. Branches are a first-class concept — students, attendance, exams, fees, and reports can all be scoped per campus, and a school group can manage multiple branches from a single tenant workspace with branch-level roles.

How does VISCO handle weak connectivity in some campuses?

Teacher attendance can be entered offline and synced when connectivity returns. Submissions carry a clientId for idempotent replay, and bulk operations queue retries via BullMQ.

Guardian experience

A parent portal guardians actually open — every day

VISCO's guardian portal consolidates attendance, results, fees, clinic notes, and school messages into one mobile-first app. Bilingual labels mean grandparents reach for it as easily as the homework helper.

Mobile-first portal · works on Android, iOS, low-bandwidth web
See attendance, grades, and fees per child in one tap
Pay outstanding fees via Chapa from the portal
Receive SMS + in-app alerts in Amharic or English
Approve permission slips with one-tap digital signature
Consent and data-export workflows for minors

Designed for the phone

Fast on 3G, large hit-targets, offline reads. No app store install required — works as PWA.

Pay fees with Chapa

Tap "Pay outstanding" and complete checkout in Chapa. Receipts sync to the school ledger instantly.

Direct line to teachers

Per-child message threads with the homeroom teacher, finance officer, and administration.

Term-by-term progress

Subject grades, attendance percentage, achievement badges, downloadable report cards.

Clinic transparency

Encrypted clinic notes and immunisation history, viewable only by the guardian and consent-authorised staff.

Consent & data rights

One-click subject-access export, anonymisation on withdrawal, and clear audit of every login.

Frequently asked

Answers from real Ethiopian schools

Can multiple guardians see the same child?: Yes. Each student supports multiple linked guardians with relationship type, financial responsibility flag, and per-guardian message preferences.
Does the portal work for parents without a smartphone?: Yes. SMS-only flows replicate the most important notifications (attendance, fees, results), and a low-bandwidth web view works on any browser.
Is the portal available in Amharic?: Yes. Labels, messages, and report cards render in Amharic or English; the guardian picks their preferred language at signup.
Can guardians pay fees directly?: Yes. Chapa is the primary provider; Stripe is supported for diaspora payments. Both produce reconciled receipts in the school ledger.

Keep exploring

Bring every campus into VISCO this term.

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