SkieWhy not use a normal MDM for student devices?
You can, and many schools do. A general MDM is flexible, but child safety is often left for you to build: filtering, schedules, parent access and the student-per-device structure may take extra configuration or other products. Skie ships those as a set, for Android phones and tablets.
A general MDM is designed for company-owned devices and employees. It handles enrolment, apps, configuration and security well. Many of them can also be configured for schools, and some have education editions. If you already run one and it does the job, there is no need to switch for the sake of it.
The gap is usually in what surrounds the device. Web filtering often needs a separate product. Parent access is rarely part of the design. Schedules that change the allowed apps through the school day, a hostel night mode or a one-lesson app change for a class can take effort to build. A structure of schools, branches and groups with student-level records may have to be modelled by hand.
Skie starts from that world. It adds a filtering DNS locked on the device, Chrome rules, a long hardening set, an install guard, schedules, lost mode with a police report and a read-only parent view. The Android device owner layer underneath is the same idea that any MDM uses, so enforcement is at the same depth.
Skie also has limits. It is Android only, and API, single sign-on, usage reports and per-app time limits are not available yet. If your organisation needs those today, a general MDM may serve you better, possibly with Skie for the student side.
A practical tip: list what you must have on day one, and what you can live without for six months. Run both options against the list in a pilot. Our guide on choosing an MDM has a checklist you can adapt.