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6. MAJOR FINDINGS OF DIAGNOSTIC STUDY AND RECOMMENDA-TIONS

160. The diagnosis reveals and highlights several issues to be addressed in order
to have a systematic, coordinated and effective statistical information system to provide
timely, reliable and consistent information to the planners and policymakers at all levels.
Regarding the general status of the information system, the primary level school census
data collection system has been decentralised and equipped with a data entry system at
district level to capture the data and to establish the district level database, although
functionality and performance may vary among the districts. Also skills, capacities and
interests of the staffs differ among the districts. At the post-primary level, BANBEIS are
equipped with a relatively well-organized collection system in terms of data processing,
analysis and distribution. But there is a gap of regular data collection systems in
BANBEIS due to a lack of resources. However, the availability of data at the primary
and general secondary levels and part of tertiary level are better than other education
sub-sectors.

161. There are several major underlying issues which need to be addressed in
order to have an effective and coordinated education statistical information system in
Bangladesh. It may not be possible to resolve all these issues and obstacles which
hinder the performance of the entire system. However, observations and findings of the
diagnostic study suggest that most of these problems and issues could be overcome
with appropriate corrected actions and full commitment from the concerned
stakeholders.

162. To this effect, the following are a set of key issues and possible actions and
recommendations in order to rectify the identified weaknesses as revealed by this
diagnostic:

Institutionalisation and coordination among concerned departments

Findings
163. Collaboration is weak among the different EMISs and statistical units in the
two ministries. Data collection structure and line of authority are different in different
education sub-sectors, due to the differences in their respective administrative
structures. Although there used to be a single ministry and district education offices
were responsible for collecting the data from all education sub-sectors, currently they
are not responsible for collecting the data from the post-primary level. Although MOPME
has an education office in every district to carry out the EMIS activities, this is not the
case for the post-primary level. This causes serious drawbacks in collecting data from
the post-primary level.

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