For the first time members of the public will have a clearer overview of the education statistics booklet, the annual publication which provides accurate and reliable statistics on education from early childhood, primary, secondary and tertiary institutions in the country.
Compiled by the Education Management Information System (EMIS) section within the Ministry of Education, the booklet also provides information that contributes towards the monitoring and evaluation of education policies and service delivery programmes on a timely basis.
After being presented to the cabinet of ministers on September 15, 2021, the document was publicly explained yesterday during a press conference at the ministry’s headquarters where principal monitoring and evaluation officer within the EMIS, Alain Thérésine, gave details to further instruct members of the public on this very important segment of the education system.
Operating under the policy development division, the EMIS section is the authority with the mandate to collect information from all educational institutions in the country and has the obligation to report to the ministry’s national and international partners on a yearly basis.
As was the case with the cabinet of ministers, yesterday’s presentation was to educate the public on the work that the EMIS section is assigned to perform, while it was also an opportunity to share some of the main achievements and voice out some of the persisting challenges preventing EMIS from delivering timely, accurate and reliable data to its partners.
It was also an opportunity to boost the visibility of the section and explore possible avenues for collaboration.
In his presentation, Mr Thérésine highlighted some of the section’s main achievements for 2020, which include processing and analysing statistical data from all educational institutions (students, staff, infrastructure, examinations and materials-resources) to provide constant feedback and to support the monitoring and evaluation of the Medium Term Strategic Plan 2018–2022 and beyond.
He also explained that educational data has been and is continuously being provided to international and national stakeholders even if not always on a timely manner.
These include the Unesco Institute for Statistics (UIS), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the Ministry of Health, the Drug and Alcohol Council (DAC), the Office of the President, the Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Trade among others, while within the Ministry of Education, statistical data is regularly being provided to the different sections for either planning purposes or management and distribution of resources.
As for the main challenges, they include constraints experienced mainly due to inadequate human capacity to collect and process data from educational institutions which has contributed to inaccuracy of the data and information.
It was also noted that even if sensitisation and training sessions are conducted, some educational institutions still do not keep proper records, which makes it difficult to accurately fill in the established formalised templates, while a lack of feedback and dissemination of data at the institutions’ level, as well as lack of motivation magnified this.
It was also explained that most designated office managers and handlers for data entry at school were not properly trained, while very few have received educational data management courses, or are at ease working with Excel software or have followed ICT module (excel in particular) in their training.
Mr Thérésine also noted that internet connectivity is another problematic factor that is deterring the collection process of data between educational institutions and the EMIS section, whereby in some schools, internet is not functioning properly.
It was also mentioned that in almost all of the schools, the computers and laptops were not installed with updated anti-virus software, which saw them constantly crashing, resulting in loss of data.
It was also noted that there were no arrangements for the proper maintenance and repair of the computers and laptops or internet facilities at the schools, and as a result, educational data from schools to the EMIS unit was delayed.
As for the EMIS headquarters, Mr Thérésine explained that staff fell behind on assignments and tasks because they have to handle multiple tasks to compensate for understaffing.
He explained that there was an increase in the workload, additional responsibilities and intensified stress because of shortages of staff.
However, the EMIS section managed to fulfil its obligation in providing educational statistics to the different stakeholders, even if it was not always on a timely basis.
Lastly and most importantly, Mr Thérésine explained that the EMIS section does not have a proper robust system (platform) in place that connects all the different educational institutions and the different sections/divisions in the Ministry of Education that are handling educational data. Thus, the process, which is semi-automated, hinders the timeliness and accuracy of the data.
Source: Seychelles Nation