Beyond what goes on in classrooms, school administration plays an important role in keeping educational institutions running smoothly. Teachers have the responsibility for planning lessons, coordinating assessments and examinations, and also preparing students’ academic reports. School administrators also manage student, staff and parent records, handle student admissions, manage fees and payments, communicate with parents and many more.
Parents must be aware of their children’s learning and academic progress.

This part of school operations can become tedious and time-consuming when schools rely on paperwork, spreadsheets or use separate tools; managing information and maintaining communication can become challenging.

Michael Gbeleyi’s work in educational technology (EdTech) focuses on easing these everyday challenges faced by schools and their stakeholders. As a software developer, Michael identifies these recurring challenges in school operations and develops practical digital solutions to manage them. One such solution is Edu-Slick School Management System.

Building Edu-Slick for School Operational Needs

As co-founder and software developer at Binal Technologies Nigeria, Michael and his team developed Edu-Slick, a web-based school management platform that digitises manual school operations in Nigeria.

The product was developed in 2019, before Michael moved to the UK to further his education at Middlesex University, London. Since its creation, Edu-Slick has been serving schools across different states in Nigeria. Basically, it eases the routines that school teachers and administrators go through daily by bringing all their processes together on one user-friendly platform.

Processes like maintaining student records, recording attendance, admissions, school fee accounts, and computing examination results can be done on Edu-Slick without having to open different unrelated tools. Accessing and retrieving this administrative data on Edu-Slick is easier than searching through different tools because they are in a shared system.

For Michael, a crucial part of this EdTech platform development is realising that the administrative needs of schools differ. Hence, Edu-Slick was developed to adapt to every user’s institutional needs and financial strength. In essence, Edu-Slick is not a one-size fits all solution. Every schools gets tailored programming for their capacity and operational needs.

Although there are common operational needs among school institutions, Edu-Slick goes through several modifications as experiences with different schools broaden.

Beyond Classroom Learning

With Edu-Slick, teachers can organise and share learning materials through online classroom. They can also create assignments, students can access these learning resources, participate in assessments, and submit online for grading.

It is a practical digital learning platform that enables teachers and students to keep interacting through a shared platform without having to be in the same room physically or virtually. These functions became relevant during the COVID-19 disruption. Schools needed to keep learning and communication with students ongoing. Without relying on third-party live video conferencing, Edu-Slick allowed schools to organise learning materials and assignments digitally.

Better Attendance Tracking

Michael’s EdTech solutions also include a smarter way of tracking students’ attendance. Having identified the gap in the conventional way schools monitor students’ attendance, Smart Attendance Tracking (SAT) was developed to help monitor the time of arrival and departure of students.

SAT uses QR codes that are linked to staff and student identification. It will record check-ins and check-outs. Moreover, parents or guardians can get timely information about their child’s attendance. The data is easy to access. There is no need to go through the rigour that accompanies manual recording.

This product was not developed as a small part of a larger system. It is a unique tool schools can use to manage the attendance-taking process.

Digitised Assessment with DECAS

Building on Edu-Slick’s Prep Exam system, Binal Technologies developed Digital Exam and Course Assessment Solution (DECAS) as a tool for computer-based testing. It includes additional uses in staff assessment, training and recruitment as well.

DECAS’ unique strength is that it can be used online and offline. In cases where there is no access to a stable network or the school needs to run assessments using its own network, DECAS can be used. Any school can organise tests and grade them digitally. Nevertheless, the system is flexible to adapt to a school’s available infrastructure.

Adoption and Relevance

Binal Technologies’ numbers show that these EdTech products are relevant to Nigeria’s educational institutions. Hence, they are scalable.

Currently, Edu-Slick has 8,719 unique active users monitored across schools in Nigeria. Because of its flexibility, this software is also accessible to medium-sized and smaller schools. It is just suited to the requirements of such schools regardless of their capacity.

Binal Technologies has also extended its product usage to charitable schools. It is also an effort aimed at extending access to institutions with limited resources.

Building a Career around EdTech Problems

Michael is a software developer whose career and interest in technology began in Nigeria where he obtained a Diploma in Software Engineering. He later moved to the United Kingdom to further his education, earning a BSc in Information Technology and an MSc in Creative Technology from Middlesex University, London.

Every improvement and modification Edu-Slick and his other EdTech products have undergone is rooted in his keen interest in software development. He has been involved in maintaining existing functions, responding to users’ needs, and contributing to the development of additional tools at Binal Technologies.

He is not just about developing software solutions for general operational needs. He designs tools that can be adapted for specific needs in schools.

Upgrades and Next Phase Building

In November 2026, Binal Technologies will launch Edu-Slick’s next phase of development. This next phase is an AI-enabled version of the platform. It is called Edu-Slick Pro. Edu-Slick Pro has features like Smart Admin (AI copilot) for administrative tasks, AI-assisted syllabus generation, resource management, staff communication, and HR tools.

The goal is to help schools organise information and handle recurring tasks with more efficiency.

A Transformational Leader Building Practical Solutions in EdTech

On the surface, Michael Gbeleyi’s work entails building EdTech software solutions for schools in Nigeria. But beyond that, each product he develops is an empathetic attempt to create practical solutions for people to carry out recurring tasks with less stress. His approach to product development is with consideration for every aspect of school operations. Schools with a high level of administrative need and robust resources can get solutions for their needs, as well as schools with moderate administrative need and limited resources. As he keeps building, his fundamentals remain identifying practical problems in the education institution and developing adaptable and accessible solutions around them.