Preface

• In our continued efforts to provide quality Education, information has proved to be a major resource.  This resource is used to assess the performance of the sector against set targets, and facilitates the formulation of informed policies and resource mobilization among others. The Education Management Information System (EMIS) is the tool, which enhances data collection, processing and dissemination and makes information readily available in a timely manner.
• The information included in this publication is part of the data gathered from the Annual School Census 2004 exercise conducted in March 2004 for the Pre-primary, Primary, Secondary, Post-primary, Tertiary and Non-formal sub-sectors.
• I wish to thank all stakeholders who have played various roles in making the publication of this abstract a reality.  Special thanks go the members of Education Funding Agencies Group (EFAG) who apart from contributing financially also contribute technically in form of quality assurance.  My thanks also go to our field officers, the District Education Officers/Inspectors, Head teachers and the ministry technical team on whose shoulders the burden of quality and timeliness of data lie.
• It is worth noting that the comments you make on this abstract will improve our subsequent publications. Further the co-operation from all the stakeholders as established in the past will help nurture and improve further our Education Management Information System (EMIS).
• If you require further information please contact

Introduction

Background

The annual education census exercise allows the Ministry of Education and Sports to collect all the necessary information about education in Uganda. This information is used as an input to the planning and monitoring of the provision of quality and relevant education to Ugandans. It is intended that the census should address the information needs of all stakeholders.

In its efforts to improve on the timeliness, accuracy reliability and availability of information to various users, the Ministry of Education and Sports, in 1999, embarked on the design and implementation of a sector Educational Management Information System (EMIS) in which the district would be the focal point. The Ministry contracted M/S AED/Africon to design and implement EMIS both by developing the necessary software and re-engineering practices and procedures.

Data Gathering

In February 2001 a workshop was conducted with District Education Officers, Chief Administrative Officers and Ministry officials as well as the Education Funding Agencies Group members and other categories of stakeholders. This workshop was, among other things, designed to determine their information needs. In addition, an assessment of the usefulness and relevance of existing data and reports was made.

Following this model, questionnaires and instructional manuals for the census 2004 were designed and circulated for comments, and the comments were applied in the refinement of instrument development. District training workshops for the past three school census exercises have included direct participation of school head teachers to optimize the impact of training.

Following training, the Questionnaires were then distributed to schools, accompanied by detailed sets of instructions manuals. These instructions cover all major definitions, the process, the responsible agents and the expected length of time for each major step.

Several new features were added to the Annual Census 2004 as follows

• Pre-labeled questionnaires (3 copies) for each school with a unique 6 digit EMIS school number-new schools not known from 2003 were assigned a unique number at data capture stage;
• Formal tallies on the Census sheet for tracking length of time in transit;Summary totals for teachers and students – Quick Counts, available very soon after the questionnaires were returned to MOES;
• Individual enumeration of all teachers including any with links to Ministry of Public Service payroll code;
• Additional teacher information including skills, previous post, and pay grade;
• Control totals on all major information parts.
• A section on capture of school operation was retained to capture the progress of government participation in school management.
• Also the capture of classrooms’ data was based on completed classrooms, classrooms under construction and classrooms needed and classrooms in use as were the case in years 2003 and 2002