South Sudan delegates, UNESCO, and Rwanda MoE officials pose for a group photo during the mission in Rwanda
Under the ‘strengthening institutional education information systems for data driven Education in Emergencies (EIE) and resilience to crises project’, funded by Education Cannot Wait (ECW), UNESCO Juba office supported the Ministry of General Education and Instruction (MOGEI) in strengthening their data systems and progress towards a more capable integrated platform through facilitating a study visit (peer to peer learning visit) to Rwanda Ministry of Education at the end of March, 2023.
Building on MoGEI’s current plans and strategies to put in place a single-integrated Education Management Information System (EMIS), to resolve the longstanding issue of siloed education datasets in South Sudan. UNESCO is contributing to these efforts through raising awareness and supporting knowledge exchange to accelerate data integration plans.
At the end of March,2023 UNESCO facilitated a five-day peer-to-peer learning visit for key MOGEI staff in Rwanda which allowed the exchange of learning on how the Ministry of Education of Rwanda has successfully undertaken substantial data integration processes. The Ministry of Education of Rwanda was selected because it has undergone large-scale transformation of its entire data ecosystem including the development of national data strategy.
The major areas covered during the study visit included.
- Building an enabling environment for data integration
- Data architecture and infrastructure to support integration
- Inclusion of, vulnerability group into EMIS
- Enhancing data quality and integration with partners
- How TVET information Management is strengthened.
- Data flows, schools’ districts to national level.
- Technical and financial resource capacities and skills to support education data management
It is envisaged that after the peer-to-peer learning visit, MoGEI will build a solid foundation of knowledge, understanding and vision, which in turn will be deployed to revise and strengthen the existing plans. With this foundational knowledge, it is hoped that MoGEI will endogenously drive the process of data integration without a heavy reliance on external expertise. This process should conclude with the development of a robust guiding framework and roadmap for data integration.