BY MENGISTEAB TESHOME
As we are in the information age, the success of a given system lies in the use of information for development. Absence of use of information for monitoring development activities results in a retarded type of development activities. In this regard, the Education Management Information System (EMIS) which is responsible for the promotion and use of information within the ministry of education for policy planning, planning and implementation, decision making, monitoring and evaluation of the education system is one of the information systems countries used to develop the sector.
Higher Education Management Information System (HEMIS) is a digitized system in Ethiopia by which information is organized in a systematic way for educational development. This system is one way of collecting, processing, analyzing, publishing, and rendering information services for users of educational materials. The information which is produced by HEMIS is not only used for the education sector it can also be used for policy and decision-making processes on the governmental level and other relevant stakeholders.
Higher educational institutions have key roles in producing research and relevant studies that can be used in the educational sector and serve as indicators of solutions for faced challenges. However, this activity (organizing and producing research) should not only be confined to higher education institutions. Relevant stakeholders, the media and other interest groups should also be sources of research and contribute their share for common good.
Seeing the benefit of well-organized information the Ministry of Education is strengthening its effort to digitize collected data to make it accessible to stakeholders. In an exclusive interview with The Ethiopian Herald, Ministry of Education, ICT and Digital CEO, Zelalem Assefa (PhD) said that the Ministry is working aggressively to ensure effective, quality and equitable data for users, policy makers and researchers. “In this regard,
The Ministry is considering developing a backup that serves as a common platform to encompass all education sectors. To achieve this goal, the ministry will process statistics and produce data through various parameters to provide information for intended purposes.”
According to him, digitalizing the education system is going well through the financial support secured from KfW German Development Bank and technical support
from Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). The general education sector digitalization is supported by the World Bank.
Ethio telecom is also working in partnership with the Ministry of Education for effective operation of infrastructures within higher education and other facilities. The Ministry is also working aggressively in areas of human development to produce qualified skilled human power to further strengthen digitalization in the education sector. Zelalem said, this method enables both students and instructors to have access to educational materials and other resources from digital libraries. In this regard, the Ministry is working in collaboration with USA Arizona State University.
Both the public and private education institutions have a problem to access relevant data that will enable them to make decisions in their respective institutions. In this respect, digitizing the system will ease the burden of the Ministry and education institutions, he said.
Higher education materials were not properly organized and encoded for various reasons. This has caused problems not only at the national level but also at international institutions – UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) – level. The new activity of encoding data is expected to address the gap.
“All private and public higher education institutions are going to encode all the data they have and it will be easily accessible. The Ministry is also preparing data with various parameters that will be available to users. This effort will let the education sector depart from manual and paper based information gathering to a digitized system.”
Ministry Education Management Information (EMIS) Executive Officer, Sebsibe Lemma, for his part said that all public and private higher education and pertinent stakeholders had been introduced about the digitization effort through training.
The General Education sector data is already collected and the Ministry is working on digitizing 43 operational public and about 300 private higher education institutions, through building the capacity.
“Though we are facing a shortage of skilled human power in some higher education institutions, digitizing effort is going smoothly, as per the plan,” he opined. The previous way of data collection and processing was hectic as well it was not safe. The Ministry’s effort to digitize data could let the sector improve efficiency and protect records from loss.”
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD 2 FEBRUARY 2023
