WA Education software rollout starts soon

Western Australia’s Department of Education is finally rolling out its $189 million “Kaartdijin” software upgrade.

Tenders for the cloud-based Kaartdijin, which handles schools’ budgeting, asset management, student health and safety, timetables, and administration, were issued in May 2022 following the failure of a previous upgrade attempt, called webSIS.

WebSIS was to be created by Civica at a cost of $32 million, but it was put on hold in 2016 when a number of software releases failed to pass testing.

According to a statement from education minister Dr Tony Bull, selected schools will begin introducing Kaartdijin during the second term of this year.

Kaartdijin’s aim is to cut administrative burdens, particularly for teachers, by giving them access to classroom administration from any internet-connected device. Some of the processes it replaces are still paper-based.

The system was developed by Compass Education and TechnologyOne.

The project is running on time: in 2022, the department said the phased cutover to Kaartdijin would begin this year with kindergartens and primary schools.