The Working Group on Education Statistics (WGES) was created in 1989 in response to a growing awareness among African policy-makers that well-managed and responsive statistical information services are essential to viable policy formulation and efficient investments in education.
The working group is led by the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida). Operational activities are managed by a special team at the UNESCO Division of Statistics.
General objective
The working group’s main objective is to help develop sustainable institutional capacity in sub-Saharan African countries for steering, implementation, maintenance and self-regeneration of effective education statistical information services. The WGES aims at developing both the technical and the human resources aspects of national education statistical information systems.
Specific objectives
Specific objectives include:
- assisting countries to develop methodologies for the diagnosis of national education systems
- supporting the formulation of national action plans aimed at improving these systems
- encouraging African countries, development agencies and technical agencies to cooperate and coordinate their efforts.
- broadening statistical information coverage. This means giving top priority to school records and the annual school census, and ensuring that statistics information systems cover basic indicators (access, coverage, survival and gender equity) for monitoring primary education. Financial statistics must cover both revenue and expenditure. Data management capacity must also be developed in these key areas.
The NESIS program
The National Education Statistical Information Systems (NESIS) program was initiated in 1991. The principal objective of NESIS is to develop sustainable national information systems that meet users’ needs and take into account concerns of the producers. At the national level, NESIS aims to boost production factors for producing statistical information —manpower and skills, administrative organization, procedures and task management, materials, facilities and logistical support and funding.
The NESIS program is conducted in four phases:
- Phase I (1992-1993): Participating countries in the NESIS program carried out a thorough diagnosis of their national education statistical information systems.
- Phase II (1994-1996): Pilot projects were launched in seven countries to address the problems and priorities identified in the diagnosis. Strategies, methods, processes and tools were developed and tested. The pilot projects formed the basis of the development of generic modules.
- Phase III (starting1997): In cooperation with African training institutes, the modules will be developed into courseware within training programs, thus institutionalizing NESIS capacity-building in the region
- Phase IV (starting1997): Technical support for national implementation will be operational as the modules become ready for national implementation through bilateral programs.
Results
Of the 40 countries that expressed initial interest in participating in the NESIS program, 20 countries have conducted diagnostic surveys and finalized national action plans. A full NESIS organization has been set up in Ethiopia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, with policy-level advisory committees consisting of African practitioners, department heads, education ministry experts, and statisticians. In addition, thirteen countries are hosting pilot projects and five additional countries have tested initial products.
The program is now focused on technical module development and on skill transfer delivery systems by packaging the modules into training packages and setting up training programs in cooperation with African training institutes.
Publications
- From Diagnosis to Action Plan, NESIS Module, 1997.
- Records Management NESIS Module, 1997.
- Data Collection NESIS Module, 1997.
- Education Indicators NESIS Module, 1997.
| The Working Group on Education Statistics
Lead Agency:
Swedish International Development Agency (Sida)
Leader: Kjell Nystrøm
Sida Education Department
S 105 25 Stockholm, Sweden
Tel: (46-8) 698 5265
Fax: (46-8) 698 5651
E-mail: kjell.nystrom@sida.se
Coordinating Agency: UNESCO
NESIS Coordinator: Ko-Chih Tung
UNESCO Division of Statistics
7 Place de Fontenoy
757352 Paris 07 SP France
Tel: (33) 145 68 24 65
Fax: (33) 145 68 55 20
E-Mail: kc.tung@unesco.org |
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