OECS Stats In Focus Issue 13 | Page 3

OECS Education Statistics at your Fingertips

The first digital version of the OECS Education Statistical Digest was officially launched on Friday 18 March 2016. The OECS Education Statistical Digest is vital in assisting with the development of policy and strategies for improving the region’s education system. It also contributes to calculating the indicators that are necessary for tracking progress towards the targets and goals in the OECS Education Sector Strategy-Education for all and attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The OECS Education Development Management Unit says (EDMU) anticipates high traffic to the digital version of the third edition of the Digest because of the accessibility to and availability of useful data such as financing education, student enrolment, repetition, pupil-teacher ratios, drop outs, examination results, country demographics and the structure of education systems in the OECS Economic Union.

According to Marcellus Albertin, Head of the OECS EDMU, the Education Digest represents a deliberate effort to improve the use of data at a macro-level. He explains that “This publication of a digital statistical digest signifies a further step at putting to rest the long-standing issue of the absence of data-driven decision in the education sector. While this is so, the region still has much work to do to entrench the use of data in decision-making at the national and school levels. This collaboration of the OECS EDMU and Ministries of Education has produced the annual publication of national and regional digests over the last three years. However, on this occasion, the third edition of the education digest complements a digital version to help make information more readily accessible for data-driven decisions across the OECS at the socio/economic level.”

Director General of the OECS Commission Dr. Didacus Jules welcomes the added value that the first digital version of the OECS Education Statistical Digest brings to the Commission's work on the education sector. He : “Our work and especially our accountability to the people of the region demand that we provide data on our performance and the programmes for which we are responsible. The digital Digest is easily accessible on any mobile device and can be shared via Facebook, Twitter and other mobile apps”.

The digitised OECS Education digest can viewed at http://joom.ag/xvUb