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Last updated: July 2026
Glossary · Zambia

School & ERP terms, explained plainly.

The words you meet when you run a Zambian school on software — defined in one line each, in plain English. From school ERP and USSD to best-six aggregate and Divisions 1–4.

School ERP
A single system that runs a school's core operations — enrolment, fees, results, attendance, timetables and staff — instead of separate spreadsheets and paper. In Zambia it also means reaching parents by SMS and USSD. See school ERP in Zambia.
USSD
Unstructured Supplementary Service Data — the short-code menu technology (e.g. *388*11#) that works on any phone with no internet or app. ZamSkools uses it so parents without smartphones can check fees, results and attendance. See the USSD guide.
Continuous assessment (CA)
The marks a pupil earns from ongoing class work, tests and assignments across a term, kept separate from the end-of-term exam. ZamSkools records CA and exam marks apart and combines them per the grading scale.
Best-six aggregate
At Zambian senior secondary level, the total of a pupil's six best subject points, used to summarise overall performance and derive a Division. ZamSkools computes it automatically.
Divisions 1–4
The Zambian senior-secondary result bands — Division 1 (highest) through Division 4 — derived from a pupil's aggregate of best subjects. Applied automatically on senior report cards.
Level-aware report card
A report card whose format and grading scale are chosen automatically for the pupil's education level — Early Childhood, Lower Primary, Upper Primary, Junior Secondary or Senior Secondary — rather than one generic template for all ages.
Pay-as-you-go SMS credits
A prepaid balance a school tops up and spends per message, not a monthly subscription. Each SMS to parents costs K0.30, first 100 free, and nothing is charged unless messages are sent. See pricing.
Free tier
A permanently free level of the product (not a time-limited trial). ZamSkools' free tier covers the whole platform for up to 100 pupils, with report cards, SMS and extra pupils charged pay-as-you-go.
National school directory
A dataset of 9,500+ Zambian schools used at registration, so a school is picked from a list with its name, province and district auto-filled rather than typed from scratch.
Setup wizard
A guided, step-by-step flow that configures a new school (details, levels, subjects, classes, year, exams) and supports bulk import, so most schools go live the same day. See the first-time setup guide.

Put the terms into practice

Register your school free and see level-aware report cards, USSD parent access and pay-as-you-go SMS for yourself.