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87. For the non-formal education sub-sector, data collection is administered by
the NGOs but no agency compiles and processes the data to have an overall picture at
the national level. In general, general education - especially in primary and secondary
sub-sectors - tend to be covered better than other sub-sectors. A brief analysis on the
collection and processing of education statistics at all education levels is described
below.

5.1 Diagnosis of the chain of production of statistics

Pre-primary and primary education

88. The data collection forms are initiated and distributed from the central level.
Data are collected from both public and private schools and institutions. Every year
around October or November, the MIS unit of DPE at the central level sends out
questionnaires to schools via district-level education offices and Upazila/Thana-level
offices. Once forms are received, the Upazila/Thana education officers organize a one-
day meeting with head teachers at the Upazila education office to distribute the
questionnaires, as well as to highlight the changes and revisions made in the
questionnaires. For primary-level institutions not under the control of MOPME, the
assistant Upazila education officers distribute the census questionnaire directly to the
respective institutions and give them instructions on how to complete them.

89. For each school, only one copy of the questionnaire is distributed. The main
set of questionnaires is returned to the district office for entering census data into the
database. The Upazila education office and the school keep a photocopy of the
completed forms.

90. Schools are expected to return the duly-filled questionnaires in three to four
weeks. It is expected that in January all the questionnaires should be returned to the
district level. Once the schools returns the completed questionnaires to the Upazila
education offices, the Upazila education officers verify completeness of the information
and then forward them to the district offices. The EMIS unit of the district education
offices enter and update school census data into the district EMIS database. Normally
two to three months are needed to complete the process of data entry at the district
level. Then the data which include individual school records are sent to the MIS unit of
DPE by electronic format. At the central level, these databases are merged into the
national level database. The school census database also covers pre-primary data for
staff and enrolment.

91. Another major data collection exercise is on a quarterly basis, where the
Monitoring and Evaluation unit of DPE collects Upazila-wide summary data from the
Upazila offices directly. The Upazila, district and regional offices keep one copy each for
summarising and disseminating basic statistics at their respective levels. These
summary data are also entered and processed at the MIS unit of DPE to present
consolidated national level summaries. The summaries from the preceding quarter are
published. Usually the MIS unit submits the report to the ministry for approval in July.

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