MEASURES TO IMPROVE THE CREDIBILITY OF EDUCATION STATISTICS 28 JULY 2015

1. MEASURES TO IMPROVE THE CREDIBILITY OF EDUCATION STATISTICS28 JULY 2015 PORT FOLIO COMMITTEE ON BASIC EDUCATION

2. OUTLINE OF THE PRESENTTION • SHAPE AND SIZE OF THE SYSTEM • NATIONAL EDUCATION INFORMATION POLICY • STRATEGIC DIRECTION OF EMIS • VISION FOR AN INTEGRATED VIEW OF THE TRUTH • STATUS OF LURITS UPLAODS • BUDGET ALLOCATION OF EMIS • COLLABORATION WITH DEPTS OF HOME AFFAIRS,SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT AND SASA • OVERVIEW OF CURRENT STATUS AND WHERE WE WANT TO BE • E-ADMINNISTRATION STRATEGIC VISION • PARTNERSHIP WITH MICHAEL AND SUSAN DELL FOUNDATION (THE DATA DRIVEN DISTRICT APPROACH) • CHALLENGES • CONCLUSION

3. All large organisations need to be managed using data So does our education system

4. How about an institution with… • ~ 500 000 employees? • ~ 12 million customers? … we couldn’t find any matches in business

5. SHAPE AND SIZE OF THE SYSTEM

6. NATIONAL EDUCATION INFORMATION POLICY • The National Education Information Policy was Gazetted in August 2004 (No. 26710) in terms of Section 3(4) (a) of the National Education Policy Act (NEPA),1996 (Act No.27 of 1996). • In terms of EMIS Policy, section 29, : DG must designate a national EMIS Officer. Section 30 further states that Each provincial department head must designate an EMIS Officer • EMIS Policy was amended in August 2010 to include the appointment of the EMIS Officers at the District and school levels. • The policy is currently being amended to accommodate the collection of unit record information.

7. STRATEGIC DIRECTION OF EMIS • EMIS Embarked on a national bid process in August 2005 for additional funding for the improvement of EMIS. • The result of the Bid process was the granting of additional funding to national and provincial EMIS units for the MTEF period 2006/7 to 2008/9. • National and Provincial EMIS units agreed upon an EMIS strategy and priority funding areas for the improvement of EMIS at a joint workshop hosted by the DoE in March 2006. • The agreed upon national strategy was to move away from aggregated data collection in survey form to the collection of unit record data from the source systems e.g. school record keeping systems

8. STRATEGIC DIRECTION OF EMIS In order to work towards the new strategy, the following priority activities for EMIS improvement were identified and agreed upon : The implementation of the SA-SAMS school administration system as a basic standard for all school data collection in order to improve and standardize data at the source level – this is the first step in building a national unit record system Implementing SA-SAMS Develop National Unit Record Information and Tracking Develop and implement the national unit record information and tracking system (DBE to develop and provinces to implement from March 2008; Business Intelligence Develop and implement Business Intelligence reporting systems; Data Audits Improve the quality of all data through data audits, the implementation of data standards, the enhancement of systems and training in data management.

9. VISION FOR AN INTEGRATED VIEW OF THE TRUTH • All data should be collected from a single source system at institutional level to provide a single entry point of truth • All operational and transversal systems must be built on top of the institutional systems and must be available for use at both a provincial and national level (may be virtual not physical) to provide a single operation of truth • The reporting layer (or business intelligence) will be a single layer on top of the operational systems to provide one single integrated view of the truth

10. VISION FOR AN INTEGRATED EDUCATION MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM The intention of the national learner tracking system is to collect the unit record data of each learner in the country from Grade R to Grade 12 and to track the movement of each learner from school to school throughout the learner’s school career. The system is able to: • Identify learners without ID numbers; • Identify duplicate learners in the system; • Identify learners that exit the system at any point; • Track the movement and migration of learners in the system; • Provide a full progression history of the learner in the system; • Provide accurate data for planning and resourcing purposes. The unit record system marks a significant change in the way in which the National Education Management Information System (EMIS) collects data to support planning, monitoring and decision-making in the system

11. INTEGRATED SYSTEM ALLOWS ONE SOURCE OF TRUTH Reporting Systems Provincial Portal National BIS District Dashboard FUNCTION Presents information to users to enable decision-making Takes data from multiple sources and processes into purpose-driven information Archives transactions and prepares data for processing and reporting Captures transaction data and activities Information Processing Systems LURITS ANA LTSM Teacher Provisioning NEIMS DDD Dashboard Data Warehousing Provincial Data Warehouse \ WC FS MPL LP NW NC EC KZN GP Capturing systems Third Party Administration Systems SA-SAMs Schools

12. SOUTH AFRICAN SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT SYSTEM • SA-SAMS forms the basis of the learner unit record information and tracking system as it feed LURITS with the learner data from school level and provide the unit record data. • The Provincial Education Departments are rolling out SA-SAMS to the schools. • The role of the DBE is to maintain the SA-SAMS package to ensure that it meets the needs of the policies.

13. STATUS OF LURITS UPLOADS AS AT 12 JULY 2015

14. BUDGET ALLOCATIONS OF EMIS

15. COLLABORATION WITH HOME AFFAIRS, SASA AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT Civil Registration/ Identification of individuals, formal records (verified against) Access to quality and improved Education; (Data verification, Intervention Planning) Social Grants (school going –age attending school), Social Welfare TEENAGE PREGNANCY

16. COLLABORATION WITH HOME AFFAIRS, SASA AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT Agreement Between DBE & DHA: • An Intergovernmental Protocol Agreement was signed on 1 March 2010 between DBE, and DHA in terms of the Intergovernmental Relations Framework Act, 2005 (Act No. 13 of 2005) , to create a constructive working relationship to introduce systems and mechanisms to reinforce DBE’s monitoring and evaluation system, provide statistical information for review of administrative records for the DBE and promote a Birth and ID Registration Campaign for DHA. • The implementation of the Agreement enables the triangulation/verification of data from the DBE’s Learner Unit Record and Information Tracking System (LURITS) and National Senior Certificate (NSC) System with the DHA’s National Population Register (NPR) on the following: - Verify Name, Surname, ID numbers of learners in the Education system working towards eliminating ‘ghost learners’; - Retrieve ID numbers of learners who do not provide it to the Education sector upon admission to school (where possible); - Verify the living/deceased status of learners in the Education System assisting in combating fraud ; - Promote complete adherence to the Admission Policy at Schools; - Identify Matriculants without ID documents and target them for ID registration before National Senior Certificate examinations; - ID numbers for Monitors, Supervisors, Volunteers, Coordinators, Helpers and adult Learners on KhaRiGude Campaign verified each month to eliminate ghost educators for stipend payment and actual learners for enrolment combating fraud and saving public funds; - Able to determine if children who of schooling-age are in the Education system (future). • Work is under way to automate the link between the DBE and DHA system • Joint Birth and ID Registration Campaign assists in promoting civil registration and eliminating Late Birth Registration

17. COLLABORATION WITH HOME AFFAIRS, SASA AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT Agreement Between DBE, DSD & SASSA: • As a result of the need to tackle child poverty and to improve educational outcomes through the provision of comprehensive social services, an Intergovernmental Protocol Agreement was signed on 9 March 2012 between DBE, DSD and SASSA in terms of the Intergovernmental Relations Framework Act, 2005 (Act No. 13 of 2005) , to create a constructive working relationship between these Departments. • It is under this Protocol Agreement that triangulation of data between the DBE’s Learner Unit Record and Information Tracking System (LURITS) and the DSD’s Social Pension System (SOCPEN) is processed to identify some of the following: - Are children of school-going age who are child support grant beneficiaries, attending school? - Some Learners in school who are not receiving grants could meet the criteria to qualify for a social grant (disability, both parents deceased) • This data triangulation can be used to identify and target data driven interventions, directing effort to where it is needed, joining energies to ensure services to children are correctly rendered including planning based on verifiable/triangulated data. Agreement Between DBE & DoH: • A Protocol Agreement between DBE and Department of Health is in progress of being signed and discussions underway on data triangulation

18. AN OVERVIEW OF THE CURRENT STATE AND LOOKING AHEAD TO WHERE WE WANT TO BE

19. THE DBE’S E-ADMINISTRATION STRATEGIC VISION WILL LEAD TO DATA USAGE MATURITY STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN DBE AND MICHAEL & SUSAN DELL FOUNDATION (MSDF) WE ARE HERE ORGANISED & COMPETITIVE IMPACT Collective Insight Maturity of Analytics Capabilities VALUE

20. THE PARTNERSHIP WITH MSDF HAS RESULTED IN A PROJECT THAT IS MOVING THE DBE ALONG THIS STRATEGIC JOURNEY Aspiration for the future: All schools, districts, provinces nationwide will make resourcing and curriculum decisions based on real and current data • Diagnostic Phase & Lessons Learnt: • Identified key areas of systematic improvement that have been incorporated in the project design • Wide consultation was achieved with district officials, principals, teachers and provincial leadership to ensure user requirements met A • DDD Tools & Approaches have been piloted in 7 districts: • Important to embed in the pioneer districts’ operations as project team prepares to transition out • Support the provinces to expand to the rest of the pioneer provinces-Advisory and project management support B C • Broader Rollout: • DBE and PED led broader implementation

21. THE PROGRAM HAS ILLUSTRATED HOW EFFECTIVE USE OF DATA CAN DRIVE OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY IMPROVEMENTS Using the Data Driven Districts approach entails E-ADMINISTRATION • Proactive and regular use of data to track system performance (key inputs that affect learner achievement) • Using data to identify improvement areasin the districts and schools BROADER EMIS STRATEGY Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, Data Driven Districts Project Other Initiatives + Partnerships • Rigorous monitoring and evaluation to ensure implementation • Putting in place the required technology and infrastructure (such as provincial data warehouses) to enable access to data COLLABORATION

22. THE PROJECT’S DESIGN INTEGRATES VARIOUS DATA & CHANGE MANAGEMENT ELEMENTS At each stage, the following must occur on an ongoing basis for successful implementation ADVOCACY IDENTIFYING AGENTS OF CHANGE CHANGE MANAGEMENT TRAINING COACHING AND MENTORING RECOGNITION OF INTERMEDIATE SUCCESSES

23. CHALLENGES • Connectivity at school level • Administration support staff at the school level. • Utilisation of data at circuit and district level. • IT skills at school level

24. End