Education Sector embrace SMS

UK mobile technology company txttouch is reporting a huge increase in educational institutions using texting as means to contact parents and students.

Schools, colleges and universities are realising the benefits of reaching students and parents by mobile rather than traditional routes and most establishments prefer to use texts as an emergency contact tool opposed to a function in their marketing plans.

Nik Maguire, txttouch’s managing director commented on the rise of text messaging use within the sector. He said:

“We’ve seen a massive rise in educational establishments recognising the communication benefits of texting and using it as means to get to students or parents.

“It is estimated that over half of the population now own a mobile phone and the quickest way to get hold of people is through their phone. Often if there is an unexpected closure or evacuation it is difficult to contact people who are remote or in transit, especially with urgent time sensitive messages.

“For example schools often struggle to contact all parents when they close due to bad weather but with text messaging the head teacher could send one saying “school closed this morning due to weather, please stay at home!” and every parent even if they had already set off for school would get the message.

The txttouch has recently been used in helping save a private school. A Merseyside school which was due for closure used the system to contact busy parents on the progress of “saving the school” resulting in higher attendance at meetings and increased communication flow.

Nik concluded:

“The system we’ve develop enables authorised personnel to contact hundreds or thousands of students, via their mobiles, from registered mobile phones. If one text message is sent from these authorised phones then every student, parent or teacher can receive it almost instantly regardless of their physical location.”

For further information visit www.txttouch.com or call 08706 260684.