Parents will be able to keep tabs on their children's school performance and attendance beginning next term.

Not only will they be able to see if their child is skiving off, but whether they have handed in their homework on time.

'Parent Connect' will also enable parents to monitor school grades online, and to see if their child is late for school.

Government announced in the House of Assembly yesterday, plans to introduce a 'parent portal' in January. Education Minister El James said it was part of increasing interaction between school and home.

"Parents must not only be able to know and understand what their children are learning in school, but they should be able to track their child's progress even before they meet for parent-teacher conferences," said Mr. James.

The portal is one of the initiatives to overhaul the public education system in the wake of the Hopkins Report.

British professor David Hopkins proposed greater involvement of parents and the wider community as stakeholders in their children's education in the report's ten recommendations.

Parent Connect will include:

• Student demographic data so parents can check telephone numbers, addresses and personal information about their child is correct;

• Children's grades on completed assignments;

• Printable quarterly report cards and progress report grades;

• Attendance records, including lateness.

Parents can even choose to receive automatic notification by e-mail of absences, lateness or missing assignments.

Mr. James said it would "remove some of the more common reasons we all hear for students not being as successful as they should be".

"Now parents will know right away that assignments are missing, and can call their children to account," he said.

The Minister stressed to MPs that the portal was "a secure system".

"No one but me can see the information about my child and my child's performance," he said.

The technology is currently being tested with a group of parents but Government expects to roll out Parent Connect for senior school parents in January.

"Once that has been accomplished, roll out will continue at the middle schools and then finish up at the primary schools," said Mr. James.

"By the end of the 2009-10 school year, all of our schools will have Parent Connect available."

According to the Ministry of Education's website, the new portal will also enable parents to communicate with teachers directly via e-mail.