North Africa to adopt a regional EMIS Norms and Standards, with ADEA and ISESCO Support
Twenty-five experts in education management information systems (EMIS), education planning, vocational training, higher education, literacy, and non-formal education from Morocco and Egypt produced a draft EMIS norms and standards document for North Africa. This benchmarking tool was the main result, together with a roadmap for its finalization, technical validation and political adoption, of the workshop held in Rabat (Kingdom of Morocco) from 16th to 20th April 2018, organized by the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) and with the support of the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO).
Morocco and Egypt participated in this important workshop, which took place at the ISESCO Headquarters, as pioneer countries, supported by experts from ADEA, ISESCO, the African Development Bank Group (AfDB), Burkina Faso and The Gambia. The main objective was to adapt the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) EMIS norms and standards to the North African context.
The opening ceremony presidium - chaired by Ms. Hind Belhabib, Representative of the Minister of National Education, Vocational Training, Higher Education and Scientific Research of the Kingdom of Morocco - was composed of Mr. Makha Ndao, Coordinator of the ADEA’s Working Group on Education Management and Policy Support (WGEMPS), Ms. Leila Jaafor Kilani, Representative of the African Development Bank Group - Office in Morocco, and Dr. Amina Al Hajri, Deputy Director General of ISESCO. All the speeches emphasized the importance of the draft regional EMIS norms and standards that will be submitted to the different North African countries for improvement, validation and adoption in the context of the African Union Continental Education Strategy for Africa 2016 – 2025 (CESA 16-25) and the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 on Education.
During the introductory presentations, Dr. Reem Ali Mohamed, Director of the Strategic Planning Unit, Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research of the Arab Republic of Egypt, gave an overview of the Egyptian education system and the country’s EMIS. She laid emphasis on the higher education and scientific research experience. EMIS in Egypt is producing satisfactory results, despite the persistence of data collection difficulties in private universities. The major EMIS challenges in Egypt are linked to rapid information development, the publication of real-time data and technological advances that call for rapid system adaptation. Modernization prospects are ongoing to meet these challenges. Egypt attaches utmost importance to the inclusion of EMIS in education, and the country now has 23 universities using EMIS, in addition to students, teachers, IT companies and various education Ministries.
Ms. Hind Belhabib, Information System Director at the Ministry of Education of the Kingdom of Moroccogave an overview of the Moroccan education system before presenting the Moroccan EMIS, its legal framework, and the main statistical production and technological tools in use. She presented the institutional and organizational mechanisms for the collection, processing and dissemination of statistical data. Morocco's EMIS as presented is undergoing an advanced level of modernization with efforts to integrate several information production sub-systems and fields, and the use of the"MASSAR" school management system.
The results are considered satisfactory and Morocco is resolutely committed to a more integrated and modernized approach for producing data, in real time, for the entire education and training system. Morocco has established a National Coordination Committee (CNC), in which all partners are represented, for the implementation of SDG4. However, there is need for concepts and nomenclatures to be harmonized between the Ministries.
Each of the two pioneer countries thus formed a working group, in line with the meeting’s overall objective. Morocco, the Francophone group, was facilitated by Mr. Bénéwendé Bonaventure Segueda, ADEA-WGEMPS resource person in Burkina Faso, while Egypt, the Anglophone group, was supported by Mr. Alpha Bah, ADEA-WGEMPS resource person in The Gambia. Mr. Youssouf Ario Maiga and Mr. Makha Ndao provided political and strategic guidance. Dr. SeydouCisse of ISESCO was the general workshop facilitator.
As part of the next steps, this draft EMIS norms and standards for North Africa is to be finalized by linking it to education quality improvement and taking into account strategic dimensions such as the importance and functions of EMIS in developing the education system in the narrative part as well as the definition of concepts deemed useful in the glossary.
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For further information, please contact:
- Mr. Makha Ndao, Coordinator of the ADEA Working Group on Education Management and Policy Support (WGEMPS), Tel.: (+263) 4775 7769; e-mail: m.ndao@afdb.org
- Mr. Youssouf Ario Maiga, Focal Point of the ADEA Working Group on Non-Formal Education (WGNFE) and Program Manager, WGEMPS, Tel.: (+226) 2536 5845 ; e-mail: y.maiga@afdb.org
