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164. There prevails duplicated efforts in certain areas of data collection, and they
need to be streamlined. At the primary level, both the Monitoring and Evaluation unit
and the MIS unit are compiling data from the same source, i.e. the district education
office. At the same time, BANBEIS and now the Department of Secondary Education
are compiling data for the post-primary sector.

165. Since data on population, especially school age-population, are used to
compute various educational indicators, it is essential to acquire reliable population
projections with relevant classifications, such as urban/rural residence, age, sex and
region. There is little or no coordination among concerned agencies to produce/project
school-age population data.

166. There is lack of linkage between the two ministries and BBS which produce
population and other socio-economics data. Stronger institutional links are to be
installed to ensure better use of these data to inform education policy and debate. This
will also lead to the sharing of resources and expertise among the statistical units. For
example, in the area of GIS systems, education mapping could fit into a larger
integrated multi- sectoral GIS, combining population data with data from a number of
line ministries - MOPME, MOE, Planning, etc.

167. Most of the EMIS projects are operated in isolation and lack vision on
sustainability. Various ad-hoc and one-time activities with little follow-up action do not
fully foster long-term development.

168. Good ideas and innovative initiatives do exist, however there are weaknesses
in the exchange and sharing of experiences as well as inconsequential efforts to
transform these into actions. This weak coordination results in little synergy and
cohesion among the existing EMIS units.

Recommendations

169. The two ministries should establish the mechanism among the concerned
departments which allows them to exert a more coordinated effort in the collection,
processing, analysis and dissemination of statistical information. A National Data
Resource Centre should be established linking the MIS unit of DPE and the EMIS unit
of BANBEIS through information network. Moreover, the statistics units within the
department concerned need to be strengthened especially in the areas of research and
policy-oriented analysis.

170. The plan for capacity building of Education Statistics needs to be developed
in coordination and in harmony with the national statistics department i.e. BBS. This will
endow the statistics units with the human resources and training needed to incorporate
data from household surveys in the analysis of education issues, to complement the
information available from household surveys, and to strengthen the link with the BBS in
achieving this purpose.

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