Use Takimu with confidence.

1. Understand roles and navigation

Takimu gives each user access suited to their responsibilities. This keeps learner information private and makes each dashboard easier to use.

Staff sign-in

1. Open Takimu and select Staff sign in.
2. Enter the email address registered by the school.
3. Enter your password and select Sign in.

The Overview page opens. On a computer, use the left menu. On a phone, use the main options at the bottom and select Tools for additional options.

• Overview shows information appropriate to your role.
• Learners is used by school leadership to manage learner and guardian records.
• Attendance contains the daily register.
• Academics contains subjects, assessments, results and report cards.
• Announcements contains parent and staff notices.
• Tools opens account settings, exports and other shortcuts available to your role.

2. Create a school account

Who can do this: the person who will be the school owner.

3. Set up the school in the right order

Use this order for a new school. It prevents unassigned learners, empty attendance lists and teachers with no available academic work.

1. Confirm school settings.
2. Add staff accounts.
3. Create classes and streams.
4. Create subjects or learning areas and assign teachers.
5. Add or import learners.
6. Add guardians and activate parent access.
7. Begin attendance and academic work.

Complete school settings

Who can do this: school owner or principal.

1. Open Settings, or select Tools then School settings.
2. Under School identity, confirm the official school name.
3. Add the school email, phone, logo link, postal address and motto where available.
4. Under Academic setup, confirm the curriculum, academic year and current term.
5. Select Save settings.

These details appear across the dashboard, Parent Portal and generated reports. Check them carefully before preparing end-of-term reports.

4. Create and manage staff access

Who can do this: school owner or principal. Some principal access remains protected for the owner.

Add a staff member

1. Open Staff, or select Tools then Staff & access.
2. Enter the staff member's full name and individual work email address.
3. Add a phone number if needed.
4. Choose the role that matches the person's duties.
5. Create an initial password of at least eight characters.
6. Select Create staff account.
7. Give the email and temporary password to the staff member privately.
8. Ask them to sign in and change the password under Tools then My account.

Change or disable access

1. Find the person in the School staff table.
2. Select the correct role.
3. Choose Active or Disabled.
4. Select Save.

Disable access promptly when someone leaves the school. Do not reuse their account for another employee.

Reset a password

1. Under Reset staff password, choose the staff member.
2. Enter a temporary password of at least ten characters.
3. Select Reset password.
4. Give the temporary password to the staff member privately.

The old password stops working and other signed-in sessions for that account are closed.

5. Create classes, subjects and teacher assignments

Who can do this: owner, principal or deputy principal.

Create a class

1. Select Tools then Classes & streams.
2. Enter a familiar class name, such as Grade 7 East.
3. Enter the level and optional stream.
4. Select a class teacher now, or leave it unassigned until the correct teacher account exists.
5. Select Add class.

To assign or change the class teacher later, use Class teacher assignments and select Save. This assignment controls the teacher's attendance and class-report responsibilities.

Create and assign a subject or learning area

1. Open Academics then Subjects.
2. Enter the subject or learning-area name and an optional code.
3. Choose Subject or Learning area.
4. Select Add subject.
5. Open the new subject.
6. Under Assign to class, choose the class and responsible teacher.
7. Select Save assignment and repeat for other classes.

The assigned teacher can now create and manage assessments for that exact subject and class. If a teacher cannot see expected work, check this assignment before changing their role.

6. Add learners, guardians and parent access

Who can do this: owner, principal or deputy principal.

Add one learner

1. Open Learners and select + Add learner.
2. Enter a unique admission number.
3. Select the learner's class, or leave the learner unassigned temporarily.
4. Enter the learner's name and optional date of birth and gender.
5. Optionally add the primary guardian's name, phone, email and relationship.
6. Select Save learner.

Import learners from CSV

Create classes first, ensure admission numbers are unique and make class names match Takimu exactly.

1. Open Learners and select Import CSV.
2. Select Download CSV template if you need the correct headings.
3. Complete the required columns: admission_no, first_name and last_name.
4. Add optional learner, class and guardian columns where available.
5. Use YYYY-MM-DD for dates and MALE, FEMALE or OTHER for gender.
6. Download the spreadsheet as a CSV file.
7. Choose the file in Takimu and select Import learners.
8. Review the number imported, skipped and needing class assignment.

Unknown class names do not block the whole import. Those learners are left unassigned so school leadership can correct them.

Edit or move learners

1. Search the Learner Directory by name, admission number, class or guardian.
2. Select Open and then Edit learner.
3. Update the learner's details, class or status and select Save changes.

Use Transferred, Graduated, Withdrawn or Archived when a learner is no longer active. This preserves their history.

To move a whole active class, first create the destination class. Then select Tools, Promote / move class, choose the source and destination, check both carefully and select Move class learners. Historical attendance, results and guardian links remain attached.

Add a guardian and enable the Parent Portal

1. Open the learner record.
2. Enter the guardian's name, phone, email and relationship.
3. Select Primary guardian where appropriate, then select Add guardian.
4. Under Linked guardians, confirm the guardian's email address.
5. Enter a temporary password of at least ten characters.
6. Select Enable portal.
7. Give the Parent Portal link, email and temporary password to the guardian privately.

When one guardian has several children, use the same verified phone or email when linking the siblings. Takimu can reuse the guardian account.

7. Take daily attendance

Who can do this: school leadership for all classes; a class teacher for their assigned class.

1. Open Attendance.
2. Select Take attendance and choose the class.
3. Confirm the class name and date.
4. Review every active learner. Unmarked learners are Present by default.
5. Change the status to Absent, Late, Sick or Excused where needed.
6. Select Save attendance.

To correct today's register, select Edit, make the change and save again. School leadership should check Classes submitted and follow up on pending classes.

8. Create assessments and enter results

Who can do this: school leadership, teachers and class teachers. Teachers see only their assigned subjects and classes.

Create an assessment

1. Open Academics and select + New assessment.
2. Enter the assessment name and choose its type.
3. Select the subject, class and assessment date.
4. Confirm the academic year and term.
5. Choose Numeric score, CBE level only or Numeric + CBE level.
6. For numeric marks, enter the maximum possible score.
7. Choose Open for mark entry or Save as draft.
8. Select Create & enter marks.

Enter and review results

1. Enter each learner's score and/or CBE performance level.
2. Mark a learner Absent instead of entering a score if they did not take the assessment.
3. Add a short teacher remark where useful.
4. Select Save results.
5. Check the Results entered count and current mean.
6. Review every entry before completing the assessment.

CBE levels are EE — Exceeding expectations, ME — Meeting expectations, AE — Approaching expectations and BE — Below expectations.

Understand assessment status

• Draft: details exist, but mark entry is not open.
• Open: results can be entered and corrected.
• Completed: results are included in completed reporting and become read-only.
• Archived: the assessment remains as history and cannot accept new marks.

After checking every result, save one final time and select Complete assessment. Complete only verified work because completed assessments are read-only.

9. Review report cards and add comments

1. Open Academics then Report cards.
2. Select View report beside the learner.
3. Review the learner identity, subject means, grades or CBE performance, remarks and attendance summary.
4. If available to your role, enter the class-teacher or principal comment.
5. Select Save comments.
6. Select Print / Save PDF when a paper or saved copy is required.

The assigned class teacher can add class-teacher comments for their learners. The owner or principal can add principal comments. Only completed assessments contribute to completed parent reports.

If a result is missing, confirm the assessment belongs to the correct class, year and term, that marks were saved and that the assessment is Completed.

10. Publish announcements and optional SMS

Who can publish: owner, principal or deputy principal. Teachers can read published staff notices.

Publish an announcement

1. Open Announcements.
2. Enter a clear title.
3. Choose Parents, Staff or Parents & staff.
4. Write a concise message without private information about an individual learner.
5. Select Save draft for review or Publish now.

Published parent announcements appear under Notices in the Parent Portal.

Send an SMS, if activated

1. Open SMS notifications and confirm SMS is active for the school.
2. Choose All parents or One class.
3. If needed, select the class.
4. Write a message of no more than 480 characters.
5. Recheck the audience and message, then select Send SMS notification.
6. Review the confirmation and SMS history.

Use SMS only for legitimate, approved school communication. Avoid sensitive learner details and follow the school's consent and communication policies.

11. Passwords, activity and data exports

Change your staff password

1. Select Tools then My account.
2. Enter your current password.
3. Enter and confirm a new password of at least eight characters.
4. Select Update password.

Use a unique password and never share an account. Log out when using a shared school device.

Review important activity

The owner or principal can open Activity to review important administrative actions. Investigate unexpected changes and review the staff member's access where necessary.

Export school records

1. Select Tools then Data exports.
2. Choose an export available to your role: Learners & guardians, Attendance or Completed results.
3. Save the CSV file in an approved secure location.
4. Share it only with authorized staff.

Exports contain live learner and school records. Do not send them through public groups or store them on an unprotected personal device.

12. Use the Parent Portal

Sign in and change the temporary password

1. Open Takimu and select Parent sign in.
2. Enter the email and password registered by the school.
3. Select Sign in.
4. Open the account menu beside your name and select Profile & security.
5. Enter the current password, then enter and confirm a new password.
6. Select Update password.

View a learner's information

1. On Family Overview, select the learner under Your children.
2. Select Results to review academic performance.
3. Select Attendance to review the rate, totals and recent recorded days.
4. Select Report card, then Open report for an available term.
5. Select Download PDF or Print where needed.
6. Select Notices to read announcements published for parents.

If more than one child is linked, use the child switcher or return to Family Overview. If a child is missing, ask the school to link the learner to the existing guardian account rather than creating another account.

13. Recommended daily and end-of-term routines

Class teacher — each school day

1. Sign in using your own account.
2. Open Attendance and submit the assigned class register.
3. Update open assigned assessments when needed.
4. Read new staff announcements.
5. Log out on a shared device.

School leadership — each school day

1. Review Overview.
2. Check Attendance for pending classes and unusual absences.
3. Review academic work due for completion.
4. Publish approved parent or staff notices.
5. Resolve learner, guardian and account-access requests.

End of term

1. Confirm the active academic year and term in Settings.
2. Confirm all required assessments use the correct period.
3. Ask teachers to enter, check and save all results.
4. Complete verified assessments.
5. Review reports for missing subjects or results.
6. Add class-teacher and principal comments.
7. Check the school identity on a sample report.
8. Use a consented test parent account to open and download the correct report.
9. Publish the approved report-availability announcement.
10. If SMS is activated, send the approved short alert to the correct audience.
11. Only update the current term when the school is ready to start the next period.

14. Troubleshooting

A menu or button is missing

Confirm the user is signed in with the correct account and check the role under Tools then My account. Teachers see only assigned work. Ask school leadership to check class-teacher and subject assignments.

A teacher cannot see an attendance class

Open Classes & streams and confirm the teacher is assigned as the class teacher. Also confirm the staff account is active.

A teacher cannot see a subject

Open Academics, Subjects, then the subject. Confirm the class and teacher under Class assignments.

A learner is missing from attendance or mark entry

Open the learner record and confirm the correct class and an Active status.

A parent cannot sign in or see a child

Confirm the parent is using Parent sign in, check the guardian email, confirm Parent Portal access is enabled and verify the guardian is linked to the learner. Use Update access to issue a new temporary password when necessary.

Results do not appear in a report

Check the assessment's class, academic year and term. Confirm results were saved and the assessment is Completed.

SMS is unavailable

Continue using Parent Portal announcements and contact Takimu support if the school wants to activate SMS.