A START-UP called Wela School Systems claimed it will accomplish in two hours what takes teachers two weeks to complete, including filling up report cards, which often leave them barely enough time to look after their family or themselves.
John Vincent Fiel is behind this idea of a fast-track report card, besting five other start-up participants who presented their pitch to a panel of judges on October 8 at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) International Building. in Makati City. He will represent the “Start Jerusalem” event in Israel this November.
The 25-year-old Fiel learned from a relative that teachers take weeks to finish filling up records of their students, which would become the basis for their grades. Usually, a K to 12 teacher would have about 1,000 students from several classes.
“The ‘old’ system requires multiple sheets to be submitted, but ours requires only one particular sheet. Several teachers would submit their records and, sometimes, one provides the records of four sections. Also, the second quarter of the school year has come around and they [teachers] have not yet finished their reports,” he said.
“Our system will collate the data and, in a matter of hours, we will give back the finished report.”
According to Fiel, they already have eight schools as clients in Misamis Oriental and are targeting private schools in the Visayas and Luzon. Some colleagues are doing the marketing and implementation in the South.
“We offer our services to schools by talking to the directors and academic heads,” he said, admitting they have yet to tap public institutions because they know the difficulty of dealing with bureaucracy.
Subscribers pay online, upload data on the web site and fill up forms approved by the Department of Education. Then, teachers key in the figures and upload again to the cloud platform. From there, the Wela system will generate the reports they need.
Fiel, the technology officer of the company and two other companions, CEO Chris Ian Fiel and Chief Marketing Officer Sean Mark Mira, won free travel and accommodation for a five-day stay in Jerusalem to meet other brains behind several start-ups.
He said just 1 percent of the market will earn them a gross income of P9 million yearly. “We target 3 million students for our medium-term plan.”
President of the Israel Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ICCP) Itamar Gero provided the impetus of start-ups, who said: “Whether you are reinventing the wheel or inventing something completely new, you are making changes in the world.”
ICCP Director Sagiv Massad stated there are three criteria the five judges are looking for to be a winner: (1) innovative element solution; (2) technological maturity; and (3) market.
“While watching the presentations, the judges ask themselves, “Is this technology the best, and is it sufficient enough? Did they research the market and adapt to their needs? Is it commercially viable? Have they identified the obstacles in selling and buying? All these give the profile of mature thinking, sufficient technology and innovative element, which will add value to the market,” Massad claimed.
ICCP Vice President for external affairs David Elefant advised prospective inventors: “First, make sure your idea can be marketed. Are people willing to pay for the service or the product? Otherwise, why waste their time building something that nobody wants? Second, make sure your idea will make money.”
He went on, “There are many start-ups in schools that we asked how they will make money, and they said they don’t know. How can you find an investor if there is no return on investment?”
“Third, how big is the market? It depends on who are you targeting. Like, [for] today’s winner, there are 13,000 [private] schools in the country. Even if [they] get a thousand schools, that’s already pretty good. [They] don’t have to get all the schools to make money.”
Elefant was queried if Wela could be adopted in other countries: “Yes, that’s what I noticed here. Why always say ‘Philippines’ and ‘Philippines’? Your market is the world. Why just stay here in your backyard? There are schools in other countries.”
Asked what Fiel’s group could expect to see in Israel, he said: “We want him to meet other start-ups, see how they are doing things and not only to meet people [there] but all over the world, to learn from others, how they raise funds, how are the other technologies [doing]; maybe they can find technology they can incorporate in theirs, [and] other ideas.”
Members of the jury included Gero, Elefant, Massad, Ambassador of Israel to the Philippines Effie Ben Matityau, DTI Assistant Secretary for Industry Development and Trade Policy Group Rafaelita Aldaba, as well as Department of Science and Technology Assistant Secretary for International Cooperation Dr. Leah Buendia.
Image credits: Roy Domingo