real-time monitoring of educational...

Real-time monitoring of Educational management

Interviews by UNICEF, the Regional Directorate for Water, Sanitation

and Hygiene (DRASH) and the Education Secretariat to select schools

to participate in the School Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Programme

identified certain situations that affect the school management

indicators, including:

• Frequent absence of teachers from work.

• Lack of student attendance registers.

• Lack of teacher attendance registers.

• Few visits to the schools by the education technicians.

• The non-existence of mechanisms for the education delegations

to follow up on teaching work in the schools.

• Classes starting after 7 am and finishing before midday, which

are the official hours for teaching work.

• Sanitary services and water systems that are closed or locked.

• Violent incidents at school.

Background

In response to this problem, UNICEF, the Directorate for Water,

Sanitation and Hygiene (DRASH) and the Education Secretariat joined

forces to create a system that will allow the real-time monitoring of

certain school management indicators in schools.

Bearing in mind their almost generalized use in Bluefields, even in

isolated areas with limited resources like Rama Key, it is proposed to use

cellular phones and to involve the different actors from the educational

community in a participatory monitoring process that employs a shared

responsibility approach.

It is proposed to incorporate certain applications that turn any student’s

common cellular phone into a tool for monitoring the everyday school

dynamic. This implies no additional cost to the “student collaborators”,

but rather allows them to access prizes or bonuses—such as a package

of free messages—as a result of their contribution.

Background

GENERAL OBJECTIVE

To help improve certain educational management indicators that

influence the quality of education through a real-time monitoring system

that provides the education authorities with the basic inputs for taking

timely decisions.

GOAL

Educational authorities recognize the importance of monitoring the

educational management indicators in real time and incorporate this tool

into their management process.

Proposal for a real-time monitoring system

1. Decide what and who to monitor: ten determinants to reduce

privations.2. Define specific

indicators: identify specific indicators for the region corresponding to the ten

determinants.

3. Identify the sources of and means for collecting information: map, validate

and complement information for the ten determinants.

4. Identify bottlenecks and measure changes:

select the weakest points in the chain of determinants and

verify their evolution every six months.

5. Analyze the causes of the bottlenecks: start with a decentralized analysis of the causes and reach a regional

and national synthesis.

6. Decide on the corrective actions at all

levels: from local management actions to a

policy, strategy and budget adjustment.

7. Report results: report the evolution of the bottlenecks in “real time” in order to carry out

actions at the regional/national/global levels.


CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE MONITORING

THE SYSTEM’S OPERATIONAL STRUCTURE (FLOW)

Network of

collaborators

Mobile telephone

network

Cellular phone with

the Android system

Telerivet

server

Dashboard in

the DRASH


MANAGEMENT ROUTE FOR THE SYSTEM’S INFORMATION

• Members of the network of collaborators (students, mother/father

collaborators, and directors) capture the information in the classroom.

• The system receives the information and the designated operator

processes a consolidated report.

• The designated operator sends the consolidated report and certain

alerts to decision makers (Regional and Municipal Education

Secretariats and the Directorate for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene -

DRASH).

• Decision makers (Regional and Municipal Education Secretariats and

the Directorate for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene-DRASH) analyze the

information received and take action in response to the alerts.

• The Education Technical Council analyzes the situation and its causes

based on the reports in order to take agreed-upon decisions and

develop a strategy to change or improve the situation.


MANAGEMENT OF THE INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE SYSTEM


Students, mother/father

collaborators, who collect

information using their cellular

phones

Data

administrator

Statistics office (follow-

up and monitoring).

Director of the Education Secretariat

Regional Education Technical

Council

1. VALIDATION OF THE PROPOSAL

Three work sessions with 12 Ministry of Education (MINED) technicians

(5 from Bluefields and 7 from Laguna de Perlas), 10 school directors and

15 teachers from the 10 schools.

Two workshops: In Bluefields with the participation of 70 people (46

female, 24 male): 5 technicians, 40 parents, 1 pedagogical adviser and 24

students; and in Laguna de Perlas with the participation of 40 people (29

female and 11 male): 13 parents, 1 pedagogical adviser and 26 students.

These sessions and workshops involved a collective reflection about the

educational situation. Factors that limit having a quality education were

identified and the proposed real-time monitoring system and the school

management indicators were shared with the participants. At the end of

the sessions/workshops, a practical exercise was done on the use of the

system to provide feedback.

Start of the piloting of the real-time monitoring

system

1. VALIDATION OF THE PROPOSAL (…continuation)

Inputs from the validation sessions:

The participants unanimously assessed the proposal as an opportunity to

support good school management in a participatory way.

They recommended incorporating questions that follow up on:

• The late arrival of teachers.

• Advances in the programmatic contents.

• Situations of maltreatment by teachers.

• Situations of peer bullying.

• Compliance with the provision of school food.

• Follow-up of the participation of parents in activities arranged by the

school.


system

1. VALIDATION OF THE PROPOSAL (…continuation)

Analysis of the determinants


system

Determinants Indicators

Supply

Teacher

availability % of teachers that attend class sessions.

Access to

services

% of schools that have uninterrupted access to water.

% of schools that keep their sanitary services operating.

% of schools that have hand-washing sites with uninterrupted availability

of water.

% of schools with personnel dedicated to the maintenance of the

hygienic/sanitary installations.

% of schools in which the students clean the hygienic/sanitary installations

through roles employing a gender approach.

% of schools in which the teachers guide the students on hand-washing

practices.

% of schools with soap available at the hand-washing points.

Demand Continuity of use % of student attendance in the class sessions.

Quality Quality

% of male adolescents that participate in cleaning the hygienic services in

the school.

% of schools that record the violent incidents that affect the school

environment.

2. SELECTION OF SCHOOLS

The schools covered by the School Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Programme

were selected:


system

No. School Modality Location

1 Monseñor Salvador Schaefler Regular primary Urban Bluefields

2 Rubén Darío Regular primary Urban Bluefields

3 El Hogar Regular primary Urban Bluefields

4 Nuestra Señora del Rosario Regular primary Urban Bluefields

5 Virgen del Carmen Regular primary El Bluff

6 Horacio Hodgson Secondary Urban Bluefields

7 Instituto Nacional Cristóbal Colon Secondary Urban Bluefields

8 Instituto las Perlas Secondary Laguna de Perlas

9 Instituto Haulover Secondary Haulover

10 Andrés Castro Regular primary Haulover

11 Beulah Light Burn Regular primary Laguna de Perlas

3. NETWORK OF COLLABORATORS

• Selection of “students, mother/father collaborators and directors” willing

to participate in the monitoring by making use of their cellular phones.

• Preparatory workshop with the pre-selected collaborators to provide a

better understanding of the basic aspects of the system, as well as the

use of the ICT application in their cellular phones.


system

No. Type of collaborator Level

Number

Female Male TOTAL

1 Students 5th grade to 11th year 35 30 65

2 Parents Preschool to4th grade 13 8 21

3Directors and deputy

directorsAll levels 16 3 19

Total number of collaborators 64 41 105


system

No. SchoolsStudents Parents

Directors and

deputy

directors

Total

F M F M F M F M

01 Monseñor Salvador Schaefler 2 2 2 0 1 0 5 2

02 Rubén Darío 2 3 1 2 2 0 5 5

03 El Hogar 2 1 0 2 1 1 3 4

04 Nuestra Señora del Rosario 3 2 1 1 2 0 6 3

05 Virgen del Carmen 0 3 0 0 2 0 2 3

06 Horacio Hodgson 4 5 0 0 2 0 6 5

07 Instituto Nacional Cristóbal Colon 13 8 0 0 1 1 14 9

08 Instituto las Perlas 2 3 0 0 2 0 4 3

09 Instituto Haulover 5 1 0 0 1 1 5 2

10 Andrés Castro 0 2 3 3 0 0 4 5

11 Beulah Light Burn 2 0 6 0 2 0 10 0

Total number of collaborators 35 30 13 8 16 3 64 41

4. SELECTION OF THE TELEPHONE NETWORK

• Identifying which of the local telephone operators (Movistar or Claro)

provide greater advantages in terms of associating in this experience.

• Given that the collaborators are with Claro, it was decided to work with

that company even though it has a deficient service.

5. EQUIPMENT PROCUREMENT

• Purchasing of a computer and cellular phone for the management of

the system at the Directorate for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene

(DRASH)


system

6. UNICEF TECHNICAL SUPPORT THROUGH A LOCAL UNV

• UNICEF has contracted a local UNV to provide systematic support to

the DRASH in implementing the monitoring system.

7. PROCUREMENT OF THE TELERIVET LICENSE

• Preliminary exercises using the free service provided by Telerivet.

• A license is currently in the process of being purchased from Telerivet in

order to develop the application in all of the schools.


system

16

5424

Octubre Noviembre

Incoming Outgoing

Number of messages sent and received

Information collected during the piloting

Flow of SMS messages per day

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

27

28

29 3 4 5 6 7

Saba

do

Dom

ing

o

10

11

12

13

14

Octubre Noviembre

Series3


Reasons for teacher absences


Andres CastroBeulah Light

BurnHaulover I.N.C.C.

Instituto laPerla

M.S.CH. N.S.R. R.D

1 ENFERMA - - 45.5 15.4 10.0 - - -

2 REUNION 33.3 - 9.1 30.8 20.0 100.0 50.0 -

3 TALLER 33.3 50.0 36.4 38.5 50.0 - - -

4 OTRA RAZON 16.7 50.0 9.1 15.4 20.0 - 50.0 100.0

-

10.0

20.0

30.0

40.0

50.0

60.0

70.0

80.0

90.0

100.0

1 ENFERMA 2 REUNION 3 TALLER 4 OTRA RAZON1 SICK 2 MEETING 3 WORKSHOP 4 OTHER REASON

SICK

MEETING

WORKSHOP

OTHER REASON

Functioning of the water systems

30%

50%

0%

8%11%

7%

35%

0%

40%

11%

0%

70%

50%

100%

92%89%

93%

65%

100%

60%

89%

100%

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

80.0%

90.0%

100.0%

AndresCastro

Beulah LightBurn

El Hogar H.H. Haulover I.N.C.C. Instituto laPerla

M.S.CH. N.S.R. R.D V.C

No SiYESNO


Functioning of the sanitary units

50%

25%

0%

8%

47%

14%

39%

0%

60%56%

50%50%

75%

100%

92%

53%

86%

61%

100%

40%44%

50%

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

80.0%

90.0%

100.0%

AndresCastro

BeulahLight Burn


M.S.CH. N.S.R. R.D V.C

No SiYESNO


Functioning of the washbasins


71%75%

100%

17%

75%

18%

81%

25%

100%

13%

29%25%

0%

83%

25%

82%

19%

75%

0%

88%

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

80.0%

90.0%

100.0%

Andres Castro Beulah LightBurn


M.S.CH. N.S.R. R.D

No SiYESNO

Violent incidents in the schools

100%

75%

100%

92%

100%96%

90%

100%

25%

100%

0%

25%

0%

8%

0%4%

10%

0%

75%

0%0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

80.0%

90.0%

100.0%

Andres Castro Beulah LightBurn


M.S.CH. N.S.R. R.D

No SiYESNO


• Some collaborators have expressed the fear that

teachers may view the monitoring as something

punitive and take reprisals.

• Difficulties in conducting initial tests due to

constant faults in the internet service in the city

(internet access is needed to enter the Telerivet

platform and send the survey to the

collaborators).

• Claro took 6 weeks to respond to the request to

buy the services.

• Procedures established by the South Caribbean

Coast Autonomous Regional Government

(GRACCS) for the procurement of services like

those provided by Claro and Telerivet have taken

a long time because these are non-conventional

acquisitions with different forms of payment to the

established ones

In the organizational phase

Obstacles that emerged during the piloting

• Poor Claro signal coverage.

• Lack of transparency in the services supplied by

Claro, e.g. the automatic activation of value-

added services (tips, offers, etc.) by the

company when clients top-up their balances,

sometimes even when they have not subscribed

to them.

• Some collaborators could not activate the SMS

packages with the top-ups made.

• Constant interruptions to the internet service in

Bluefields.

• The TELERIVET platform reached its limit in the

process of simultaneous sending and receiving of

SMS messages (the maximum of 60 SMS/minute

was extended to 150 SMS/minute).

• There was a rotation of approximately 10%

among members of the network of collaborators.

In the pilot implementation phase

Obstacles that emerged during the piloting

• Directors and deputy directors were included

in the network of collaborators.

• Repeated meetings for dialogue and

reflection with the network of collaborators

(students and parents) to analyze the

educational situation and the role they are

playing in improving the educational quality

indicators (active and proactive role).

• Presenting the monitoring as a management

tool, not a control mechanism.

• Fine-tuning the control mechanisms and

filtering the information received to avoid bad

use.

• Adjustments were made to the balance top-

up and service activation mechanisms.

• Staggered sending of the survey.

• Knowledge of the RapidPro platform has

been initiated in order to migrate to it

Measures to overcome the obstacles

he path can throw up obstacles…

and we are ready to overcome them!!!

• Evaluate the experience with collaborators and teachers.

• Document the experience obtained during the piloting.

• Migrate from Telerivet to the RapidPro platform.

• Establish the protocol for channelling the reports with the alerts to the

authorities for timely decision making.

• Identify more isolated and hard-to-access areas where there is a cellular

phone signal and the system can be implemented in 2015.

• Establish agreements with telephone companies to create a specific

package for this service and have differentiated costs.

• Approach the Movistar company to explore the possibility of using this

option where there is access to their network.

• Share information about the monitoring system with other institutions

(Ministry of Health, National Police, Ministry of the Family).

• Use the monitoring system to measure other indicators (registration,

promotion, programmatic advances, distribution of school snacks,

emergency situations, among others).

Next step

Thank you for your attention!!!

real-time monitoring of educational...

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