EMIS – On-Line

FH KokCES: EMIS

Project Overview• This project was established to address a lack

of proper management information neededespecially in terms of quality information forplanning within the Free State Department ofEducation.

• The project is three years in operation frominception. The project aims to move away fromaggregated information in terms of learner andeducator information to more specific unitrecord information for schools.

Challenges in the system

• Paper based survey forms to schools• Lack of administration computers at

schools• Lack of computer literacy at schools• Lack of understanding the value of

information on a management level• Lack of willingness to provide funding

where the results were not guaranteed

Who is making use of the information?

• The project solved service delivery issues like requests for detail informationfrom the general citizens, parent community, schools, Non GovernmentalOrganizations, Book publishers, Analysts, Newspapers, National SchoolNutrition Project, Schools Textbook Project, HIV AIDS Project, Universitiesin South Africa and abroad, etc. and to address strategic planningchallenges.

The innovative part of the project is the fact that EMIS provides detailinformation about learners, teachers, curricula, GIS information, Orphansinformation, Learner pregnancies, Learners per subjects, Educators persubject, Subjects educators needed, Gate keeping of learners in Gr 11,Hostel Information, Physical Infrastructure at schools, ICT infrastructure perschool, Pass percentage per school/grade and many more.

Lately it is possible to give the performance per learner per subject.

School principals used to inflate learner information because that might meanmore educators in the school, more resources in the school and even a higherpost level that might mean a higher salary for the principal and staff members.

All SchoolsLearner Numbers : 1996 - 2010

Gr R Included

7920

63 8057

18

8077

18

7712

37

7492

48

7225

70

7111

02

6985

20

7006

10

6862

15

6903

45

6823

76

6719

72

6531

23

6553

10

600000

650000

700000

750000

800000

850000

Y 1996 Y 1997 Y 1998 Y 1999 Y 2000 Y 2001 Y 2002 Y 2003 Y 2004 Y 2005 Y 2006 Y 2007 Y 2008 Y 2009 Y 2010

Y 1996Y 1997Y 1998Y 1999Y 2000Y 2001Y 2002Y 2003Y 2004Y 2005Y 2006Y 2007Y 2008Y 2009Y 2010

The Numbers below are according to the 10th day reports released for each year

All SchoolsLearners per Grade per Year : 2000-2010

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

70000

80000

Learners

Y 2000

Y 2001

Y 2002

Y 2003

Y 2004

Y 2005

Y 2006

Y 2007

Y 2008

Y 2009

Y 2010

Y 2000 15000 58192 57633 68966 72087 69978 64743 54911 66135 63688 62141 51631 32621 11522

Y 2001 16002 60442 54481 57704 69958 68923 65342 56292 64903 61104 58123 47618 28726 12952

Y 2002 17241 63052 55021 53090 58300 70607 63757 58065 56417 68356 58724 44687 26610 17175

Y 2003 16370 66537 55728 52855 53319 55076 68401 58364 60104 55298 70910 41551 24776 19231

Y 2004 16077 67013 59239 54203 53201 50964 53984 66968 61547 55660 69749 44361 26198 21446

Y 2005 18404 60309 59548 56091 54223 50360 49126 54089 66811 54963 67805 46065 26773 21648

Y 2006 20040 60157 56018 58738 58782 54028 51329 50592 59639 60951 68698 49718 31240 10415

Y 2007 22529 59009 54649 54579 58512 55815 52071 50061 53726 57898 72974 49377 32239 8937

Y 2008 23719 58555 53311 52014 53227 55440 54124 50622 51562 55354 68602 50167 31525 13750

Y 2009 23308 57135 53848 52398 53510 52518 54036 52212 49625 55340 63602 48496 30183 6912

Y 2010 27120 58265 53945 51911 53195 51795 51216 52036 53352 60014 62034 46387 28757 5283

Gr R Gr 1 Gr 2 Gr 3 Gr 4 Gr 5 Gr 6 Gr 7 Gr 8 Gr 9 Gr 10 Gr 11 Gr 12 LSEN

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Achievements• Detail information about learners, schools and teachers are instantly available on

EMIS On-line. The EMIS – On Line development is an on line web based systemthat could be viewed worldwide. Anyone using the EMIS On-Line will get directreports when requested from the system. (Previous years information also available)

• EMIS On-Line is an information system developed within the Free State, but hasbeen used by other provinces, departments, universities and governmentdepartments as an important resource for strategic planning.

• EMIS On-Line reduces time of any enquiry as a person/member of the public couldget updated information immediately with the push of a button.– Approximately R100 million per year was saved on Educators salaries last year because of

effective and correct data on the system. The last few years have shown a drop in learners– therefore a decline in Educator posts should be the result and not a growing need foreducators in the system. If this information is not tracked properly it would lead to wrongplanning.

• EMIS On-Line provides timely information to Top Management of the Department ona monthly/daily basis to ensure well planned decisions that will improve servicedelivery to the citizens. EMIS On-Line information is also used as a baseline forprojections of the Departmental Budget.

Learner Pregnancies

1252 1251

16301754

2343

2030

1386

1531

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 (29 July)

Year

Preg

nant

Lea

rner

s

Sustainability• The EMIS On-Line supports the SAMS (South African Schools Management

Administrative System) with regard to administrative issues for example finances,human resources, leaner reports, curricula, timetables. Schools can log into thesystem and see that the correct information is reported.

• The EMIS On-Line system also accommodates the NEIMS (National EducationInfrastructure Management System) with regard to class sizes, learner spaceneeded within the Free State. All data sets are incorporated in the EMIS On-Linesystem that hosts different databases for a variety of purposes for proper reportingand planning of which the SA-SAMS warehouse forms the core of the informationfor the Free State Department of Education.

• The SA-SAMS warehouse is a data repository with the information of all learners,educators, attendance, learner curriculum results and much more that feeds theplanning system of the Free State Department of Education as well as theNationally based Learner Unit Record Information and Tracing System (LURITS).The seamless integration of all these systems enables the FSDoE to sustain thesystem to the advantage of all stake holders in education. The sustainability willeven be enhanced with a new envisaged web based system for schooladministration that is currently in development called iSAMS.

• Personal information will unfortunately not be made available to the public.

LEARNER INFORMATION

Structure of the Learner Information

Learner Enrolment Menu• Total learner enrolment can be seen or you can

filter by grade or class.

Learner Detail: To view this screen,click on learner and then View/Update

Learner

• Learner information can beedited here

Summary of Learner Information• Double click on learner to view summary

information of marks and disciplinary record.

Transfer Letter• Transfer letter can be printed once a learner has been

archived

Disciplinary Records• Maintaining Disciplinary Records for

Learners

• The blue codes may not be changedbut new codes can be added.

Weekly Learner Attendances

• In this section, users can manage the attendance oflearners per term.

Print Blank Attendance Register• Blank daily attendance register per month can be printed for

learners, educators and staff.• Weekly learner Registers can also be printed from this menu.

Daily attendance register per month

Reliability• The information is fed from school level to the District

offices and then uploaded to the EMIS Warehouse.From the EMIS warehouse it is uploaded to EMIS On-Line.

• The learner and educator information is as reliable asthe schools are using the operational system for theday to day running of the school.

• The attendance and learner reporting system istherefore one month old information on the systemand is reliable as the latest submission from theschool.

Performance Indicators

Challenges and Lessons• The collection of information at some schools within the Free State is sometimes problematic

due to computer non-literacy of school staff, etc. The problem of reaching deep rural schoolsalso presented major challenges to the FSDoE.

• The fact that the majority of schools in rural areas were not computer literate posed majorchallenges to the FSDoE. The result was that schools with administrative computers weretrained in the use of SA-SAMS (school based administration programme that was developed inco-operation with the National Department of Education)

• It is possible to become SA-SAMS literate before you are computer literate.

• Schools with administrative computers are now updating the school system on a daily basisand then submit the school admin system to FSDoE on a monthly basis. This information isthen populated into a provincial warehouse from where reporting and planning is done and thedata forwarded to the EMIS On-Line web-base system on an ongoing basis.

• Not all schools, especially farm schools, are electronically connected to EMIS which led to slowcapturing of data provided by the said schools. Budget constraints also hampered theupgrading of the system. E.g.R7 million was requested, only R3 million was allocated to theEMIS during 2008/2009 financial year. Only R 2 million is available per year to sustain thesystem until 2012. This money will also be used for the training of school Principals, Adminstaff as well as Educators using the system. A further challenging factor is the vacant postswithin the Directorate that totals more than 60%.

WIN – WIN SITUATION

• The EMIS On–Line system is currently running for three years and alreadytwo provinces copied the system to improve service delivery in theirrespective Departments of Education. The EMIS On-Line system is aninnovative system that provides accurate information to schools,management and the citizens worldwide on a daily basis for quick decision-making.

• The EMIS On-Line is a key information resource that supports effective andefficient service delivery to the people of South Africa. The EMIS On-Linesystem has already demonstrated savings within the Department ofEducation and has a significant positive impact within the Free State.

• Feedback from School Principals, Universities, Publishers, Banks andBusiness in general and the public shown that EMIS provides accurateinformation on a variety of issues that is not available anywhere in SouthAfrica including STATS South Africa.

Has the project receivedassistance?

• National Treasury approved a budget ofR3 million annually via the Free StateProvincial Treasury to start the project andan amount of R1,8 million was given for2010 to sustain the project.

Future of the Project

• It is not a project any more but a way of livingthe dream and reporting to all stakeholders.

• After implementation of iSAMS in all schools are-alignment of the system will be necessarybecause of a different architecture and databasedesign but the information will be 99.9% thesame and the system should enablestakeholders access to relevant and up to dateinformation.

Technology used• Databases SQL Server 2005

• Business Object (SAP) – 5 Super User Licenses from SITA

• 200 Security licenses

• Dashboard Manager : Performance Indicators

• 1 x Data server running on Windows Server 2003

• SQL replication – Pushes data to the web services on the hour

• GIS: ARC IMS Viewer

• Web services running on Apache Tomcat

EMIS Team• EMIS Head

• Systems and database administrator

• Data Analyst / Developer

• Statistician / Developer

• Programmer / Developer

Thank You