A two week work attachment was recently conducted (18th-29th April) by the Pacific EMIS Facility, Statistics for Development Division in Noumea, New Caledonia in collaboration with representatives from the Pacific UNESCO Institute for Statistics and SPC’s Educational Quality and Assessment Programme.
The purpose of the attachment was to increase knowledge and skills on the management, analysis and reporting of educational data, and to support the development of Educational Statistics Digests for 2015. Small and large island countries took part in the training, including representatives from Fiji, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, the Cook Islands, Palau and Papua New Guinea.
Core elements of the training were based on a series of modules which Pacific EMIS has developed in association with UNESCO to provide specific guidance on the analysis and reporting of EMIS data. Key modules included:
- Data Quality Control and Assessment
- Presenting Data: Graphs and Charts
- Monitoring Data: Performance Indicators
- Analysing Indicators
The presentations and practical activities on data collection, processing, management and quality assessment processes aimed to support countries to routinely verify and validate the completeness and quality of their information. While the number and magnitude of challenges differed across countries, formal and informal discussions provided an opportunity for participants to share experiences on their challenges as well as strategies for addressing issues.
Discussions and activities were also conducted on stakeholder needs assessment and the importance of engagement to better understand and respond to the broad range of information needs. In association with this, different methods for reporting and presenting information were discussed and a practical session was delivered on the use of infographics. Subsequently, a number of participants designed eye catching and informative posters which would be suitable for presenting key statistics to a broad range of stakeholders.
Additional topics covered over the two week period also included gender statistics, GIS mapping and population statistics, numeracy and literacy standards, and the Sustainable Development Goals related to Education.
Overall, feedback from participants was extremely positive across a number of domains, including their ratings and comments on the presentations, practical sessions, the facilitators and the format of the sessions.