Accuracy of Department of Education Albay Data in the Learners Information System

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Department of Education (Department of Education) has implemented the Learners Information System (LIS) to establish accurate and reliable registry of learners. To realize this, accurate data from schools is necessary. However, as experienced in the previous years, lots of issues associated with the updating of learners’ profile reached the Schools Division Office of Albay. Even this school year, there are still one thousand six hundred forty-two (1,642) pending change requests and one hundred twenty-one (121) Learner Reference Number for approval due to the failure of the schools to provide documentary basis. Therefore, it is necessary to check how many of these learners in the entire Division are not accounted in the system and to identify the causes so that necessary actions may be implemented for their inclusion.

METHODS

Heads of all the public schools in the Division were considered as respondents. An online form was used in gathering data. Percent error was used to describe the accuracy of Learners Data. Recurring themes out of the responses were identified to determine the factors that affect the inaccuracy and were reported in terms of percentage. Likewise, recurring themes were recognized and categorized to present the recommendations of the respondents.

RESULTS

SDO Albay's data in the LIS is inaccurate by 1.23% in terms of Basic Profile and by 1.22% in terms of Number of Learners. The main reasons for the errors in the learners' profile were encoding errors on the part of the users (46%) and absence of documentary references (34%). Inaccuracy in terms of the number of learners was due to system blockers (34%), absence of documentary references (28%), transfer issues (25%) and neglect on the part of the user (13%). Respondents recommendations to achieve accurate learners’ data that are system-related include establishing a user-friendly system with readily available facilities and guaranteeing a prompt response from the Help Desk. Establishing a monitoring and coordination mechanisms to address school to school issues and concerns came up as a policy-related recommendation. Accurate data encoding from a valid reference and conducting LIS Training for Teacher Advisers were recommendations that are user-related.

DISCUSSIONS

There is a need for SDO Albay to implement measures ensuring LIS data accuracy. The recommendations of the respondents must be considered in order to establish accurate and reliable basis for sound decisions that will affect the operations of schools and the Department of Education as a whole.