KARACHI: The Sindh education department on Wednesday launched a management system for data collection, profiling and planning in connection with government schools in the province.

Present at the launch of the Sindh Education Management Information System (SEMIS) were Education Minister Syed Sardar Shah, Reform Support Unit (RSU) chief Junaid Samo, Unicef education manager Venessa Lee and other important officers from the department.

Sharing information about the SEMIS, Mr Samo said it would help them gather the annual census of Sindh’s 45,000 schools, including the student-teacher ratio, the school’s budget expenditure, etc. “These school performance indicators can lead to better planning,” he said.

He said that on the basis of seven-year data, from 2015 to 2022, they had divided the SEMIS into three parts — collecting data, using it for planning and school clustering. He also informed that the running and managing of the SEMIS would be the responsibility of the RSU.

The system is being financed through the European Union with technical assistance from Unicef.

RSU’s research director Aftab Alam also added that they would be able to monitor the girls’ stipend prgramme, besides students’ attendance through the SEMIS.

Speaking on the occasion, Education Minister Syed Sardar Ali Shah said the SEMIS was the realisation of one of his dreams. “It will digitise all the information about each and every government school. And that will make it possible to access data with just one click,” he said.

“It will make monitoring and profiling of schools so simple and easy as we learn of the condition of each school building, too, in real time,” he added.

The minister also said the Sindh government would keep the system accessible to people. “Anyone will be able to access this data and register his/ her opinion on its website,” he said.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2022