Building a School Fee Payment and Tracking System for Public Primary Schools in Osun State

Public school fee management in Nigeria often suffers from poor record-keeping, unaccounted collections, and inadequate feedback mechanisms for parents seeking fee payment confirmations. This study presents the design and implementation of a school fee payment and tracking system for public primary schools in Osun State, South West Nigeria. The research was prompted by audit irregularities reported in 14 schools in the Osogbo Local Government Area, where manual levy collection records were found to be incomplete or contradictory. The system was built using PHP and MySQL, incorporating features for student registration, levy schedule management, payment recording, automated receipt generation, and a parent-facing USSD query channel for payment confirmation. A pilot deployment in three primary schools over one term showed a 100 percent improvement in payment record completeness and enabled the schools to generate timely financial reports for the Local Government Education Authority. Parents in the pilot study reported increased confidence in the transparency of the fee collection process. The USSD integration was identified as critical for ensuring inclusivity among parents without smartphones or internet access. The study recommends state-wide deployment supported by the Osun State Universal Basic Education Board. Keywords: school fee management, USSD, primary education, Osun State, financial transparency.