From 22 to 29 August 2026, SurePay Limited, working in partnership with the EduTech Teachers Network (ETN), conducted a series of regional training workshops for educators and SurePay SIMS Champions in Central, Western, Eastern and Northern Uganda. The initiative was designed to deepen understanding of the School Information Management System (SIMS), exchange practical implementation experiences and prepare educators to support successful adoption and sustained use of the platform in schools.

The workshops brought the conversation about digital school management closer to the people who will guide its day-to-day use. Participants were able to interact with fellow educators and champions, discuss the realities schools face when moving from manual or fragmented processes, and explore practical approaches to onboarding, staff support and continued system use. Lunch and refreshments were provided at each regional session.

A national series delivered through four regional centres

Rather than concentrating the training in Kampala alone, SurePay organised one workshop in each of Uganda’s four broad regions. This helped widen access, created space for region-specific experiences and laid a foundation for locally available champions who can guide schools nearer to where they operate.

About SurePay Limited

SurePay describes itself on its official company profile as a provider of digital and financial solutions that helps businesses and institutions improve operations and service delivery. Its stated vision is ‘Healthier People & Businesses’, while its mission is to support small and medium-sized enterprises with digital and payment solutions.

The company’s wider portfolio includes merchant and payment services, bulk SMS, core banking through SureBanker, mobile banking, property and church management systems, and bespoke payments development. Its service catalogue also describes aggregator services, loan management and savings-related solutions. This broader payments and digital-management background is important to SIMS because school administration is closely connected to billing, collection, reconciliation, communication and reporting.

SurePay’s training presentation reported that more than 10,000 schools had been onboarded. These are company-reported figures. The corporate website also lists NITA certification, a KCCA trading licence, Bank of Uganda certification and data protection certification among its compliance credentials.

What is the SurePay School Information Management System?

The SurePay School Management System – referred to throughout the training materials as the School Information Management System or SIMS – is an all-in-one digital platform intended for education institutions of different sizes. It brings administrative, academic, communication and financial workflows into one system so that a school can work from a more consistent set of records rather than separate books, spreadsheets and disconnected applications.

SurePay presents SIMS as an easy-to-use platform for payments, planning and performance tracking. The official product page says the system automates routine administration, supports communication among administrators, teachers, learners and parents, and provides reporting tools to help schools make decisions from their data. The user manual shows that authorised users sign in through an online portal and can work from a computer or supported smartphone.

The main SIMS capabilities explored in the training materials

Student information and admissions: Schools can create and search learner records, organise classes and streams, and capture admission, guardian and authorised escort details. The dashboard provides a summary of enrolment, gender, billing, payments and balances, giving authorised staff a quick institutional overview.

Academic and examination management: The platform supports centralised academic records, online gradebook functions, examination and assignment management, learner performance tracking, report-card generation and automated teacher comments. The public product page also describes timetable management and tools for distributing schedules and managing teacher assignments and resources.

Fee management and digital payments: Schools can configure fee structures for categories such as day scholars and boarders, bill learners by class and term, monitor payments, view transaction details and generate receipts and reports. A unique payment code links a payment to the correct school and learner. Training materials describe access through MTN, Airtel and bank channels, with payment notifications for schools and parents and reduced reliance on cash handling.

Accounting, suppliers and inventory: The August 2026 presentation describes chart-of-accounts setup, income statements, balance sheets and cash-flow reports. It also presents supplier and procurement functions, including local purchase order generation and supplier payments, together with inventory and asset-tracking tools intended to strengthen accountability and control losses.

Attendance and communication: SIMS includes student and staff attendance tracking, with the training presentation describing immediate absentee alerts. Bulk SMS and notification tools can be used for direct communication, fee reminders and other school updates. The official product page also lists a communication portal for administration, teachers, learners and parents.

Pocket money and library support: The platform’s pocket-money function is designed to help families and schools manage student funds with greater visibility and notification. SurePay’s current product page also lists a library module for cataloguing books, recording loans and returns, and managing library resources.

The platform is described in SurePay’s training presentation as scalable for primary, secondary and tertiary institutions. SurePay also says SIMS can be customised and integrated with existing systems, subject to an institution’s requirements and implementation agreement. The public FAQ states that typical implementation may take two to four weeks depending on the organisation’s size and needs, and that user training and ongoing technical support form part of the implementation process.

From software demonstration to practical adoption

A school management platform succeeds only when the people expected to use it understand both the system and the processes around it. The regional workshops therefore went beyond introducing a list of features. They created room for participants to connect the technology to real school routines, from setting up a school profile and fee structure to admitting learners, billing classes, tracing payments, issuing receipts and producing academic reports.

The sessions also enabled participants to share implementation experiences: how to prepare existing records, support staff who have different levels of digital confidence, communicate new payment procedures to parents, resolve early user challenges and maintain consistent use after the initial onboarding period. This peer-learning dimension is especially valuable because schools differ in size, connectivity, staffing, governance and the maturity of their existing record-management practices.

By discussing these realities collectively, educators could identify approaches that are both technically sound and workable in their own contexts. The result is a stronger bridge between the platform provider and the schools expected to use the solution.

Building a network of SurePay Champions and trainers

A major opportunity within the initiative was for participating educators to become SurePay Champions and trainers in their respective areas. In practice, a champion can serve as a local advocate and guide: demonstrating SIMS to school teams, supporting early onboarding, helping users follow agreed workflows, escalating technical issues through the correct support channels and relaying structured feedback from schools to SurePay.

Regional champions can shorten the distance between a school and the support it needs. They can also explain the system in language that reflects local school realities and help institutions move from one-off training to continuous professional support. The role is not simply to promote a product; it is to help schools understand what must change in their own data practices, responsibilities and routines for digital management to deliver value.

The role of the EduTech Teachers Network

The EduTech Teachers Network partnered with SurePay to mobilise educators for the four regional sessions and connect the company with teachers and school personnel interested in digital transformation. Through its professional network, ETN helped extend the invitation beyond a single institution or location and opened a pathway for educators to develop as SIMS Champions and trainers in their communities.

This partnership reflects ETN’s wider commitment to practical digital capacity building. Education technology adoption works best when developers, school leaders, administrators and teachers learn from one another. Providers bring the platform and technical expertise; educators bring knowledge of school workflows, learner needs and the conditions in which implementation must succeed.

What SIMS can mean for different school stakeholders

School leaders: Centralised dashboards, reports and financial visibility can support planning, accountability and more timely management decisions.

Bursars and finance teams: Automated billing, payment allocation, receipts and reporting can reduce repetitive reconciliation work and make it easier to follow fee collections.

Teachers and academic teams: Attendance, assessment records, performance tracking and report-card tools can reduce fragmented record keeping and free more time for teaching and learner support.

Parents and guardians: Remote payment options and notifications can improve convenience, confirmation and communication with the school.

Learners: More accurate records, timely academic feedback and transparent handling of school payments and pocket money can contribute to a smoother school experience.

Important foundations for successful school adoption

The workshops were an important starting point, but sustainable adoption will depend on what each school does next. Institutions considering SIMS should identify an internal implementation team; clean and verify student, class, fee and staff data before migration; define user roles and approval responsibilities; train every group according to the tasks they will perform; and communicate new procedures clearly to parents and learners.

Schools should also review the current service agreement, payment and settlement terms, data-protection arrangements, access controls, backup and continuity provisions, support channels and any integration requirements before deployment. SurePay’s August 2026 presentation describes SIMS as having no service charge to schools, to onboard.

Most importantly, schools should treat digitalisation as a change-management process rather than a one-day installation. Leadership support, accurate data, consistent use and responsive follow-up are what convert platform features into better administration and improved service to the school community.

A step forward for educator-led digital transformation

The completion of the four regional SurePay Champions SIMS workshops marks a meaningful step towards building educator-led support for digital school management across Uganda. By convening participants in Kampala, Mbarara, Mbale and Lira, SurePay and the EduTech Teachers Network created a national learning opportunity while recognising that successful implementation must ultimately be supported locally.

The next measure of success will be how effectively the knowledge gained is translated into school-level action: stronger records, more transparent fee management, clearer communication, timely reporting and confident users. As trained champions continue engaging schools in their regions, they have an opportunity to turn SIMS from a promising digital platform into a practical tool for better-managed learning institutions.

Learn more

Schools and educators interested in the platform can visit the SurePay School Management System page, request a demonstration, or access the SIMS portal. SurePay’s published contacts are info@surepayltd.com, +256 770 919 201 and +256 756 523 376.

Another phase of trainings is being planned, open to all interested in joining as Champions. Contact / WhatsApp ETN’ Rogers Mukalele on 0776960740 to be added to the coordination WhatsApp group for updates.