Up-to-date data about schools vital, head teachers told |30 April 2013

This was during a half-day working session held at the ministry’s headquarters at Mont Fleuri.
The Education Management Information System (EMIS) has been in place in schools for many years but as part of the ongoing reform process in education, the system is undergoing a complete overhaul.
Wilfred Uranie, who heads the EMIS unit in the education ministry and other technicians led the information discussion session.

Mr Uranie said the EMIS is a key unit in the Ministry of Education which provides statistical information to policy formulators and decision-makers.

‘’Schools need to feed in credible information to the system thus the need to educate head teachers on the need for credible and up to date information and statistics on their schools.

They must  compile information about their school properly and they also need to know why and for what purpose the ministry needs  up to date information and other data on their schools,” said Mr Uranie.

He further noted that it is also important for Seychelles’ various international partners and affiliated bodies in the education sector to be provided with all forms of data from the education sector when requested and these should be as per international requirements thus the need to develop the programme and make it an integral part of the education system.
He said the new system is expected to be fully revamped and running by the end of next year.

Mr Uranie said the EMIS should not be looked at as a unit within the Ministry of Education only but also as a system that manages information at ministry, school and the education sector level.
“We do not only deal with information from the ministry but from private institutions as well,” said Mr Uranie.

He said EMIS is about developing the system so as to be able to collect, process, analyse, integrate and give feedback in terms of statistical data for better education management processes, policy formulation, budgeting and planning.

In order to ensure its effective operation, the ministry is building up its human resource capacity to run the system in a more structured and effective manner.
Data administrators in schools and the ministry will be equipped under a capacity-building programme under the cooperation agreement between the Ministry of Education, the European Union and the International Institute of Education Planning (IIEP) of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).