School Data Collection for Unified District Information on School Education to Take Some Time

A Correspondent

Hailakandi: This year, data collection for the Unified District Information on School Education (UDISE) 2018-19 will take some time as the process is still underway. In Hailakandi district, only a few schools have received UDISE Code but most of them do not exist physically or are running as per reports received from the block elementary education officers.

Deputy Commissioner, Keerthi Jalli, who also happens to be the Chairman, District Level Redressal Committee, in an order issued on Thursday, said in case of any genuine claim by the headmaster/headteacher of any school, application may be filed in the Office of the District Mission Coordinator, Sarba Sikhsha Abhiyan with relevant documents duly authenticated and countersigned by the respective BEEOs within 30 days failing which UDISE code stands automatically canceled. 342 schools, both government and private, have been identified in the district. Inspector of Schools, Rajiv Kumar Jha said UDISE Plus is a key concept to policy decisions on the education of the young.

The National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, an expert body on data collection, processing, and analysis, handled the project during the past two decades. The think tank started collecting the data from the states by September 30 and completed the job by May. By August, statistics about teacher vacancies and infrastructure — toilets, drinking water, labs, libraries — across the country’s 15.53 lakh government and private schools were out, setting the stage for decisions on funding for the states. The department asked all the schools to feed the data online. The think tank used to secure the data through the states, whom it allowed to collect the information offline from schools and send it along in a computerized form, through database files or CDs. But the school education department decided that getting the data directly from the schools would eliminate any distortion by state authorities and produce more authentic results — the key reason for the government taking over the project, said an official.

The department took the help of the National Informatics Centre and the ministry’s own statistics division to coordinate the project. The first problem was that the preparation of the format and software for online data collection took a long time. The collection began at least three months late — early this year instead of last September. “It may not be possible to release the statistics in August. Statistics from previous years will then have to be used for policy decisions,” an official said. UDISE Plus has several advantages as stakeholders can access and analyze information to make evidence-based decisions. It can help in monitoring and measuring performance in real-time coupled with visualization and presentation of complex data in a simple form.

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