Project Proposal on Education Management Information ...

Project Proposal on

Education Management Information Systems (EMIS)

UNICEF, Beirut January 1997

January 1997

Funding proposal on

Education Management Information Systems

(EMIS)

A Decision Support System

Rationale

For almost two decades the education sector in Lebanon has been living in the dark, not only because of lack of electricty during the long years of war, but because educators did not have proper access to reliable data. The war has paralyzed the work of the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the Center for Educational Research and Development (CERD). The matter was further complicated with the cessation of the Ministry of Planning and the Directorate of Statistics from functioning, in addition to the fact that the country didn't conduct a national census since 1932. All this contributed to the fact that educators for long years could not generate information that can be used in the planning and implementation of programmes to improve the education system by providing recommendations for action as to educational access, quality and efficiency. Thus, educators whether decision makers or implementors were left with no significant data on educational inputs, processes and outputs leading to complete absence of educational planning.

Background

Lebanon is a small country of 10542 sq.km. overlooking the Mediterranean. It has a population of around 3 million and a child population of around one million between 015 years. Emerging out of 16 years of war that has destroyed its economy and its infrastructure Lebanon has embarked on a process of healing and reconstruction in which the Government, the private sector, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and individuals are all playing a part. Yet, despite the tangible revival of the national economy relative to the situation during the war, the sequels of the civil war are still perceptible. Twenty eight percent of the families live under the poverty line, and seventy five percent of these families are found in the rural peri-urban areas.Moreover, some 450000 people are still displaced and living under hard conditions with some of their basic needs being deprived of.

In education, the system seems hardly to be meeting the Education for All goals as set

in the Jomtien Conference of 1990. Compulsory education as stipulated in Lebanese

laws has not been enforced yet. Available information on net enrolment ratios gives

contradictory figures. Table 1 gives an idea of this confusion, stressing the need for a

unified educational information system and for a standard set of educational indicators.

The two mentioned studies in the table indicate two different enrolment rates for the

same year; 1992-1993.

Table 1. Net Enrollment as estimated by two studies for the same year

School Level

Jubai & Abu Rijaili

CDR Study

Study

Age Estimated Ratio Age

Estimated Ratio

Pre-school

2-5

43,5

4-6

43,0

Primary

6-10

99,3

7-11

96,0

Intermediate

11-14

65,0

12-15

89,0

Secondary

15-17

30,0

16-18

59,0

All levels

2-17

63,5

4-18

N/A

The primary level enrollment rate of 96% reflects no problems in terms of access, but the internal efficiency of the system is dramatic. According to the joint UNESCOUNICEF Learning Achievement project conducted in 1995, and which was the only source of primary data since the beginning of the war, the repetition rate is 37.5% and the over-age rate is 30.5% at the primary level. While estimates on available pre-war studies reflect that the dropout rate is 30% at the end of the basic education level. It is true that schools continued to function during the war but problems accummulated and are still existing though five years have passed since the end of the war. The problems are evident especially in the public sector which caters for the poor of the Lebanese and has 31% of the student body. On e of the major problems is that teachers were dislocated during the war. Central administration lost control over the recruitment, appointment and transfer of teachers; with the result that many schools have become overstaffed and some of them with more teachers than pupils. Presently, the number of teachers in public schools is high with a pupil teacher ratio ( PTA) of 8:1, imposing thus a heavy burden on the finances of the government. The pre-service and in-service training of teachers have been continuously disrupted and, for years, completely stopped. Consequently, the number of unqualified or underqualified teachers increased. Curricula were not revised since 1968-1972 period and were not assessed in terms of outcomes. Also, enrolment in vocational and technical training and education is low and the level of technical and vocational abilities and skills of workers is well below what is needed to ensure proper and efficient use of resources. Furthermore, the system seems to be hardly meeting the

needs of the country's economy, social recovery, and development raising questions about relevance of education at all levels.The system's full recovery and future development can not be conceived and achieved without proper attention being focused on the enhancement of the management of the public sector, and particularly building national capacities in the management of data at all levels of the system and in all its units as to local and EFA goals especially in the monitoring of its access, quality, and efficiency. Thus, a project that will establish a unified education management information system and a standard set of educational indicators is needed to act as a decision support system to educators at all levels. The proposed project will grasp the opportunity of national efforts to reform and restructure the education system. It will build on the success of the Learning Achievement Project which lead into enriching local experiences and building national capacities. Also, it will benefit from the increased interagency collaboration and will compliment their efforts into common aims instead of their diversification.

The overall goal of this project is:

To reduce disparities in equity of access to quality education along regional and socioeconomic lines by strengthening the assessment and monitoring of performance indicators and the design of intervention programmes.

Objectives 1. 2.

3.

To extend a continuous and permanent monitoring system that is learnerbased and that consists of local, EFA and CRC performance indicators. To upgrade management skills, supervision and the design of intervention programmes by policy-makers and educators to improve the efficiency and quality of the education system. To ensure completion and retention of 80% school age children within the basic education level by reducing overage ratios, repetition and drop out rates to half.

Strategies

- Mobilizing all educational and communication channels for the realization of national goals, broaden the EFA alliance, partnership and interagency collaboration at local, regional and international levels.

- Empowering beneficiaries including decision makers, and implemetors while enhancing community participation of social workers and by strengthening

collaboration between governmental, non-governmental organizations and the private sector.

- Building national capacities by training and the transfer of knowledge like on the job training and by participation in the different project activities at local and peripheral levels while encouraging the exchange of national and international expertise.

- Modeling targeted and progressive interventions that will consider problems of repeators, slow learners with a focus on gender issues and while reducing regional disparities along rural-urban and socio-economic lines.

- Building on existing initiatives as the interactive and intergrative Learning Achievement project.

Geographical Coverage, Benficiaries and Partners

The studies in the project will cover around 200 schools each year from the basic education leve and around 5000 students with their parents, teachers and principles. The household surveys will reach around 200 children in and out of school with their parents. 200 educators will be trained each year from all levels. The project will focus on all the 6 regions of Lebanon thus covering all areas. The main partners in this project will be MOE, CERD, MOSA in addition to UNESCO and other UN agencies. CERD will be the lead manager.

Activities

Advocacy

Advocacy efforts in collaboration with MOE, CERD, UNESCO and other partners will focus on bringing to the fore data its analysis and implications in order to mobilize local and international support, collaboration and partnership. This mobilization will aim at facilitating the implementation of CERD national Plan for Educational Enhancement Lebanon (PEEL), and the NPA in addition to meeting the quantitative and qualitative EFA and Summit goals. These efforts will lead into following the CRC provisions especially the enforcing of compulsory education progressively and as stipulated by PEEL. Advocacy will be realized through holding three seminars and workshops each year to involve top level decision makers and other educators .These seminars and workshops will sensitize participants to the objectives of this project and the importance of meeting its qualitative and quantitative goals. They will also draw on the

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