SEMIS- Tracking progress in the Education Landscape

Background:

Globally, there is strong consensus on the crucial role of data in providing evidence for effective decision making. The need for data is even more important in matters of public policy as each decision has long lasting implications in terms of impact and resources involved.

One of the biggest impediments for reforms in the Education sector has been the lack of data on various important measures. Recognizing this shortcoming, the Education & Literacy department initiated the Sindh Education Management Information System (SEMIS) project.

Objective:

To gather information needed to support the activities of Education Department including management, planning, and decision making.

Scope:

All public sector schools of Sindh

Overview:

The Sindh Education Management Information System, or SEMIS, is an integrated human and computer based process for providing all the information needed to support the activities of Education Department including management, planning, and decision making.

With the aim of integrating all school related functions, every school has been allotted SEMIS codes against which all data is integrated and all payments are disbursed.

The main activities of the SEMIS portfolio include:

  • Annual School Census- The annual school census is a comprehensive activity being undertaken annually since 1991, and has been refined in subsequent iterations. As part of the census, enrolment figures, teacher statistics, infrastructure status are mapped for all public sector schools and aggregated by taluka, district, and division.
  • Geographic information system- As part of SEMIS, all public sector schools are being geographically tagged to become part of the consolidated database. This enables tracking schools by area to ensure they are established in areas where required, and rationalized where there is duplication. Tagging of all public sector schools has been completed in 24 districts of Sindh.
  • Data consolidation- As part of SEMIS, data is consolidated and processed to provide insights for decision makers. The annual SEMIS profile is released for various stakeholders across the education sector for perusal of data.


Impact:

SEMIS data has been used for subsequent policy reforms including teacher rationalization, recruitment and allotment policy, school establishment plans, minimum standards for education, and school consolidation. SEMIS has also been linked to teachers’ biometric verification and the broader HRMIS platform.