ارشدان مدیریت آموزشی

Tokai – The role of data

September - 2004

6

The role of data in educational planning

Epeli Tokai

A good education strategic plan is one that is supported by relevant and up to date data. Data may take a number of different forms, such as student achievement information, census data, staff numbers and qualifications and the like. A body of data, though, cannot be used effectively until it is turned into information, that is to say data that have been organised and analysed and can be used for decisionmaking. Chapman and Mählck (1993:1) note that:

many developing countries are now making substantial gains in developing databases on their education systems. A considerable amount of attention and resources are being devoted to the design and implementation of educational information systems as a means of providing decision-makers with more accurate, relevant and timely information for policy formulation and planning.

In the Pacific region, donors such as NZAID, which has provided assistance through funding and the provision of technical expertise to develop computerized Education Management Information Systems (EMIS) in the Cook Islands and Solomon Islands, and AusAID with assistance provided to Fiji, Kiribati, Samoa and Papua New Guinea, to name a few, have placed an emphasis on the importance of data to support strategic planning in education and in the decision-making processes in those countries.

The Ministers of Education of the Pacific Island Forum Countries in their meeting in Auckland in May 2001 emphasised that ‘in order to develop sound policy and planning frameworks it is essential to improve data and information collection and retrieval systems to provide accurate, timely and relevant data for informed policy decisions’ (PIFS, 2001: 3). As a result of the agreement made by the Ministers, the PRIDE Project, as stipulated in its Workplan for 2004, was mandated to hold by the end of October 2004 a regional (Fiji) workshop on strategic planning methodologies for basic education, including data collection and analysis techniques.

One of the specific objectives of the first regional workshop held in September 2004 was to provide specific training for National Project Coordinators (NPCs) and data managers in strategic planning methodologies for education, and in appropriate techniques for the collection, analysis and management of educational data for planning purposes. Two and a half days were allocated for workshop sessions. The main purpose of group discussions was for the participants to share experiences regarding their progress and where they were in terms of management and utilisation of data in each of the countries. In addition, the session was used as a forum to identify issues and challenges as well as identify what countries can do to improve the collection, analysis and reporting of data to support planning.

The purpose of this paper is to describe and document the outcomes of the data managers’ workshop sessions, which were conducted parallel with workshop sessions for the PRIDE Project NPCs. After showcasing the Kiribati Education Management Information System (KEMIS), it discusses progress of the development of the Solomon Islands Education Management Information System (SIEMIS). This is followed by an analysis of the challenges faced by data managers in the collection, entry and analysis of data. A preliminary overview of measurable indicators is also provided.

The Kiribati Education Management Information System (KEMIS)

KEMIS uses an Access database to store data gathered from schools from year to year; analyse data so as to identify trends and changes in the education system; produce statistical reports and charts to help with planning and education management; and produce UNESCO EFA Indicators.

This database was funded by AusAID and implemented by UniQuest, a University of Queensland company, and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MEYS), Kiribati. KEMIS was designed in outline in September 2001 and developed in detail during a three-month period from November 2001 to February 2002. It was developed using the standard Access software and was customized to permit the analysis and presentation of data and the making of effective decisions about the strategic development of the education system. Mrs Era Etera, Education Officer Statistics, Kiribati, and Rebecca McHugh, Project Coordinator, UniQuest, showcased KEMIS to the participants.

The KEMIS project goals

The goals of the KEMIS Project are to establish a useful, powerful and efficient system for managing data and information at MEYS; make use of modern technology consisting of a database system and computers; and ensure KEMIS is a resource from which everyone in the MEYS can benefit.

Previously, data have always been available about the education system in Kiribati. However, these were entered and stored in Excel. As a result, data retrieval was slow and the storage of data was not satisfactory. KEMIS has been designed to solve all these problems. A lot of quality educational data has now been collected, entered and stored in KEMIS, all of which can be retrieved at the press of a button.

Data entry, analysis and reporting: what can KEMIS do?

Three years of data, 2002–2004, have now been entered in the database. KEMIS now holds a lot of information gathered from every school in the country. Data in KEMIS can be used to generate reports on school resources, facilities and conditions of facilities in each school, and make comparisons among schools, villages, islands and by districts. In addition, other data stored include, among other things, the number of pupils and teachers, ages by enrolment, participation by gender and qualification of the teaching staff. The database also stores detailed information about school enrolments, including the number of enrolments by age, class level and gender. These figures can be compared among schools, islands and districts. The database also has data about how many pieces of furniture each school has in its rooms, and all of the different types of furniture each school has.

The outlook for KEMIS

As survey data are entered each year, the understanding MEYS staff have of the education system in Kiribati will become more and more detailed and in particular, the staff will be able to do the following: make comparison by year; track growth and changes by district, island, village and school; monitor rates of non-attendance, repeating and enrolments; evaluate the conditions and future of the teaching profession; and see trends in the participation of students by gender, ethnicity and other categories of analysis.

Plans for Solomon Islands (SIEMIS)

There is a clear weakness in education sector management in Solomon Islands in regard to education data collection, data analysis and reporting. While there are some data available on schools, teachers and students, they are mostly incomplete and fragmented. The Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development (MEHRD), with AusAID assistance, commenced in 2001 with the development of the database required to manage school returns and other data used to monitor and plan the development of the system (Solomon Islands Government, 2004). This work has been continued with the support of the EU, but the task remains incomplete, because the ministry is unable to process rapidly or report completely and accurately on the status of the education system. The ministry has sought assistance from NZAID and EU to establish a fully integrated Education Management Information System (EMIS) based on the model recently established in Kiribati.

NZAID and EU have agreed that they will jointly finance the project, the purpose of which is to design, develop and establish an effective EMIS for the Solomon Islands. The system will provide information in a format that will enable the managers of the education system at national and provincial levels to undertake specific analysis of trends and needs and to use these analyses to make effective decisions regarding the development of the system and, in particular, the allocation of resources.

The project started in May 2004. The first component was the review and redesign of MEHRD’s existing survey instruments and the completion and costing of hardware and software specifications for the project. The other components will include the following: software design; hardware and local and wide area network; data entry, analysis and reporting; training and capacity building; budget process and resource allocation; and strengthening of the planning and statistics unit.

The completion of the SIEMIS will allow for the collection of more detailed and accurate school, student and teacher data and the improvement of its analysis and reporting, to facilitate the achievement of objectives of the Education Strategic Plan

The challenges of data collection

sharing of approaches and instrumentation

The group discussions focused on the following questions:

1. What system/instrument is used for collecting educational data?

2. What type of data do you collect?

3. How often are the data collected and updated?

4. Do you have a centralised database system? If yes, what program do you use?

5. Does your Ministry have a separate/special unit responsible for data collection and processing?

6. Discuss the techniques used for dealing with non-responding schools.

The answers to the above questions are discussed in detail below.

What system/instrument is used for collecting data?

All countries use school questionnaires or survey forms to collect data, as indicated in table 6.1. These forms are sent to schools for principals to fill in. Completed questionnaires are then sent back to the district, provincial or central education office, depending on which office is responsible for data entry. However, in Palau questionnaires are sent out electronically to all schools and completed forms are sent back electronically to the central office.

What type of data do countries collect?

Data collected range across such matters as student information, teacher information, school information, school facilities, financial information, school equipment and furniture, curriculum and school support staff. The range of data collected depends very much on the needs and the size of the particular country.

What was common in most countries was that each country had two databases, one specifically for general school information and the other for student examination results (external examination results). Databases of the second type, which are established mainly because of the confidential and sensitive nature of the students’ performance data, may be located within the Curriculum Development Units or with the Examination Sections or Monitoring and Evaluation Divisions within the Ministries of Education (MoEs).

How often are the data collected and updated?

Frequency of data collection varies from country to country. In some, data are collected annually while in some, collection occurs quarterly, depending on the urgency of the data required.

Do you have a centralised database system? If yes, what program do you use?

It is interesting to note that some small countries still do not have a centralized database system (see table 6.1). Countries with a computerised database have Excel, Access or DOS programs. Countries that do not have a centralised database system store and access their information manually, which is a very time consuming process.

Does your Ministry have a separate/special unit responsible for data collection and processing?

Some countries, especially the smallest island states, do not have a separate statistics unit to collect and analyse data the responsibility is simply added to the workload of another department. As a result, the statistics area is often neglected. In Nauru, for example, the MoE does not have a statistics unit and national statistics are coordinated by the National Statistics Bureau.

Discuss the techniques used for dealing with non-responding schools.

Data need to be improved and updated. All too often school data are collected by non-motivated and uninterested teachers and principals, who may or may not send the questionnaire to the MoE. Non-responding schools was a common problem highlighted by some countries. There were several techniques listed by the groups to deal with non-responding schools, the common ones including:

· sending reminder notices by official memo, phone, fax or e-mail

· Site visiting by the education staff to collect questionnaires

· citing non-responding schools in the performance evaluation of the school principals

· surcharging school principals and making deductions from their salary

· withholding government grants to non-responding schools.

Data entry and analysis

The questionnaires are sent to the schools to be filled by the principals. The completed questionnaires are then sent to the District Education Office, the Provincial Education Office or to the central office for data to be entered into the database.

There was a consensus on the need for a common approach as to the type of computer program used, though the database design must be unique to each country. This would ensure uniformity in the training of data managers and would enhance countries’ ability to help and to learn from each other, as there are elements in the database common to all the countries.

Education ministries in each of the 15 countries use their database to report on the development of education in their countries. The medium of reporting varies from country to country but some of the common ones include the publishing of annual statistics reports/digests, annual reports, reports to UNESCO and other organisations, and ad hoc reports using information from the database.