DHIS2 for EMIS in Uganda

NTUNGAMO - The State Minister for Primary Education, Rosemary Sseninde, has told teachers in Ntungamo district to embrace and harness the power of information technology to transform education.

Sseninde made the remarks during the implementation of Education Management Information System (EMIS) in the district.

According to the ministry, the EMIS, an ICT management tool, helps to integrate people, technology and practices in the process of collecting, capturing and processing data from different sources to generate information to aid informed decision making for operation and managerial functions of the education and sports sector.

Sseninde told the teachers that they should plan well, and requested them to always give honest and true data concerning their schools, urging them not to inflate figures.

She noted that the implementation is timely for quality data for planning, budgeting, monitoring and resource allocation.

Sseninde said that the education sector has taken the ICT-les direction with most meetings now happening online using various applications.

Since June 2019, the MoES basic education department has been piloting the use of DHIS2 as an EMIS.

She said, “I remember launching this project EMIS in Wakiso in July last year where I encouraged your counterparts in Wakiso to embrace this system and harness the power of information technology to transform the education sector.”

Sseninde said that the education sector has taken the ICT-les direction with most meetings now happening online using various applications.

She noted that despite the COVID-19 challenges the ministry’s mandate still stands and is to ensure that all learners have access to quality and equitable education.

“It is time to embrace this new technology and we cannot wait any longer if we are to achieve our educational goals. I am glad that the partners provided all the implementing sites with laptops, desktops and internet to support timely capture, analysis and presentation of our education data.

“I have been informed that you are also going to receive a printer and storage cabin, utilize all this equipment appropriately and ensure moving forward in all you do, plan and act with data,” Sseninde told teachers.

She revealed that the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the MoES will be conducting Covid-19 surveillance in schools.

“You will be required to support reporting on the number of learners screened for COVID and any COVID-19 suspected cases in schools to the district COVID task force and MoH through the EMIS.

Let us all embrace this as a measure to protect our learners, teachers, parents and the entire country,” she said.

The one-year project has been carried out with technical support from HISP Uganda and Save the Children Uganda, the University of Oslo and funding from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD).

The Commissioner basic education department, Dr Cleophus Mugenyi, decried the delay in submission of raw data from some schools which he said delays the process of submission.

“Ensure that data is submitted in time so that the results reflect what is on ground,” Mugenyi said.

He outlined the districts of Gulu, Mayuge, Omro and Wakiso which have benefited from the project.