Member States of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) have committed to making greater use of data in policy and decision-making. Consequently a substantial amount of resources, human and capital, has been invested in the collection and publication of data. While there has been improvement in the quality and the timeliness of education data published, it is evident that more needs to be done to use the data to inform policy or programme decision-making.
With the adoption of the OECS Education Sector Strategy 2012-2021 (OESS) the Education Development Management Unit (EDMU) has facilitated activities aimed at strengthening the collection and use of data at all levels of education systems within the OECS. These activities have focused on strengthening the region’s education data systems capacities through the development of standardized data collection and analysis processes that focus on information dissemination and meaningful data use.
One significant result of these activities has been an improvement of the schools’ data capture census questionnaire. This was achieved through the collaborative efforts of OECS Education Statisticians. The revisions were based primarily on the need to capture school level data to monitor the implementation of the OESS. The newly revised questionnaires are currently being used across all Member States. They have been the source of data for the annual publication of national education digests and the OECS Education Statistical Digest.
Improvements to the data capture, analysis and reporting systems have led to other positive results. These include:
- The compilation of the OECS Education Statistical Digest (Volumes I and II);
- The publication of five national statistical digests (Grenada, Montserrat, St. Lucia, St. Vincent
and the Grenadines and St. Kitts and Nevis) with two other Member States at the advance stages of their publications
(Antigua Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis and Dominica);
- Improvements to the framework for monitoring the implementation of the OESS;
- Iinitiation of efforts to find a solution to the long-standing issue of identifying an appropriate
Education Management Information Systems software.
While concerted effort has been made to improve the use of data at a macro-level, resulting in some incremental gains, the region still has much work to do to entrench the use of data in decision-making at the national and school level. Based on an internal assessment of work undertaken thus far, the EDMU is proposing to further strengthen administrative data systems with a view to (a) establishing a robust and effective monitoring and evaluation framework in education that is aligned to national and regional education strategies; (b) assessing and strengthening national EMIS capacities through the provision of capacity development activities and technical support in this area. These initiatives will undoubtedly bolster existing efforts to enhance the quality, relevance, and comprehensiveness of education data in OECS Member States. These in turn, will facilitate the necessary conditions for evidence based decision making.