WCED installs student ‘tracking’ system
How should teaching posts be allocated annually for each public school across the province? Which schools have unacceptably high learner/teacher ratios and what can be done to redistribute the learner population? Which grades have the highest attrition rates, and how can administrators reduce the number of dropouts?
Aiming to address these and other critical questions, the Provincial Government Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has implemented an operational system designed to track each learner in the province. and monitor changes and movements of learners on a real-time basis.
The system is intended to improve the efficiency and quality of education in the Western Cape. It is known officially as the Central Education Management Information System (CEMIS).
The system consists of a single database comprising all the learners in the Western Cape’s public schools, from Grades R to 12. In addition to monitoring progress in schools, the system is designed to allow more detailed analysis of the drop-out rate in high schools, as well as movement between schools and movement in and out of the province.
It also provides more accurate learner numbers, which will in turn enable the WCED to allocate resources more effectively and efficiently, using current rather than dated information.
The system aims to benefit schools, by making it easier to capture information on new registrations. Schools will save time by not having to complete manual surveys each year. They will also be able to import information on learners when developing new administrative systems.
The WCED started work on developing concepts for the system in January 2005. The department worked with the provincial government’s Centre for e-Innovation (CeI) in developing the database before issuing a tender for service providers to assist with implementing the project.
“Previously, we used manual surveys to determine overall numbers in the system. While many schools use databases, others do not. Until now, the province has not had a central database of all learners at our schools,” says Peter Present, director: Education Research, at the WCED.
“By implementing Fujitsu’s BI solution, our district and circuit managers have flexible, self-service reports in a variety of formats, in order to quickly view and analyse a great deal of information pertaining to each educational institution,” Present adds.
Working in conjunction with Fujitsu, the developers from the Centre for e-Innovation and the EMIS (Education Information Management System) Department, created a self-service reporting system that is available to authorised users throughout the province.
Having this wealth of information available meant the Western Cape Education Department faced the enormous challenge of procuring and implementing a technology solution to analyse and distribute information from thousands of schools in the province. The solution had to meet all their requirements to deliver information in a consistent, cost-effective way to help prioritise investments and allocate funds.
“Implementation of the solution also had to provide flexible, simple, self-service reporting for managers to have immediate and accurate answers to their questions, enabling management decisions to be made on accurate information rather than hunches or feelings,” says Fujitsu head of Core Services, Stephen Floyd.
“In addition to textual reports the Western Cape Education Department faced the challenge of delivering a solution which would also make data available graphically through a geographical information system (GIS) view,” Floyd adds.
All the above imperatives could only be met by introducing a thin-client Internet/intranet-based solution, integrating graphical, textual and geographic information.
Present says that Fujitsu’s business intelligence solution was chosen as the preferred product because the functionality available matched the needs and requirements of the business fully, while the solution was developed for Internet/intranet use.
In addition, all information assets could be integrated into one common interface, and the solution provided two-way integration with the Web-based geographic information system (GIS). End-user training requirement were minimal, he concludes.
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