What is the Working Group on Education Statistics (WGES)?

The Working Group on Education Statistics (WGES) was formed in 1989 in response to the growing awareness among African policy-makers that well-managed and responsive statistical information services are essential to viable policy formulation and efficient investments in education.
The WGES is based on a tripartite cooperation at both international and national levels between African countries, technical and funding agencies. The leadership of the WGES is shared between Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida). The WGES Secretariat is located at UNESCO Harare and special teams at the UNESCO Harare and Dakar Offices manage operational activities. Key members of the group are bilateral agencies -(Sweden, France, the United States, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom), multilateral agencies (UNESCO, UNICEF, the World Bank, the Rockefeller Foundation) and countries hosting pilot programs.

What are the objectives of the Working Group?

The Working Group’s main objective is to help develop sustainable institutional capacity in sub-Saharan African countries for steering, implementation, maintenance and self-regeneration of effective education statistical information services. WGES thus aims at developing both the technical and human resources aspects of national education statistical information systems.
The WGES program has three main components:
• Development of modules for effective technical assistance, training and national implementation (NESIS).
• Forum for exchange of experiences and innovations.
• Clearing-house services for inter-agency cooperation and coordination, and for facilitating network building among experts working with education statistics in Africa.

The NESIS program

The National Education Statistical Information Systems (NESIS) program is the principal component of the WGES. Initiated in 1991, NESIS is a capacity building program advised and co-financed by WGES members. It aims to develop the tools necessary to obtain the reliable facts and figures on which effective policy formulation and education management are based. Its principal objective is to develop sustainable national information systems that meet users’ needs.
At the national level, NESIS aims to reinforce factors for producing statistical information-manpower and skills, administrative organization, procedures and task management, materials, facilities and logistical support and funding.
As regards the phases of information processing, NESIS seeks to improve school records management, data collection and reporting, database management, data processing and retrieval, statistical analysis, planning and management applications and information dissemination. Based on pilot experiences in African countries, NESIS has published a series of technical modules that cover these questions. Future goals include supporting organizational development and management of information systems and development of information products and services.
Through its working principles of African involvement, ownership and intra-regional cooperation, NESIS has launched innovative modes of development cooperation.
Of the African countries in the NESIS program, 21 countries have conducted diagnostic surveys and finalized national action plans. Fifteen countries have hosted pilot projects or tested initial products. Currently over 40 African countries are -members.
The program is now focused on skill transfer delivery systems by converting the modules into training packages and setting up training programs open to all to introduce the skills at the country level. The development of capacity is steered by cross-national technical working groups, which are being elected and formed in the respective priority areas and sub-regions. NESIS is also building up forum and clearing house services and creating ‘NESIS-NET’-an African network of experts and professionals.

UNESCO National Commission and Ministry officials from Uganda, Zambia, and Mozambique meet with WGES/NESIS to discuss NFE pilot projects at the WGES Secretariat.

The WGES Secretariat, jointly with the Working Group on Non-Formal Education (WGNFE), held a peer review meeting with representatives from Uganda, Mozambique, and Namibia from 23-24 September 2004 at the WGES Secretariat/UNESCO Cluster Office, Harare – Zimbabwe.
The objective of the meeting was to evaluate progress of the joint pilot projects on Non-Formal Education Management Information Systems (NFE-MIS) being undertaken by the three countries, with particular focus on the review of the existing contracts.

The meeting had full representation from the countries concerned as attested by the table below. However, due to unforeseen commitments, the WGNFE Coordinator could not attend and sent her regrets.
The meeting was informed of the emerging shift in the WGES/NESIS strategy, necessitating the need to readjust the Non Formal Education (NFE) pilot project contracts. Coupled with the aforementioned development was the complexity of differences between NESIS’ short-term funding arrangements juxtaposed with those of the UNESCO regular budget run on a biennium basis.

Due to the expiry of the Contribution Agreement under which the NFE pilot project contracts were concluded, the signed contracts have been made, from a financial perspective, administratively null and void, although this in no way renders the outstanding work invalid. Hence the need for a one-on-one open forum with the key stakeholders (Secretary Generals of the National Commissions for UNESCO and project coordinators of the three pilot countries).

The WGES/NESIS objectives regarding the NFE pilot project contracts are as follows:

• To revisit NFE pilot project contract Terms Of Reference.
• To formulate work plan that could be executed hence-forth to December 2004 under the current Contribution Agreement.
• To draw up joint work plan as continuity of the three pilot projects in 2005.
• To facilitate project execution through elimination of administrative problems.
• To have all stakeholders identifying how to proceed on the technical and administrative front.
• To achieve high execution rate to uphold image with donors.
Country presentations of progress on NFE-MIS pilot project to date and constraints in its execution

Mozambique
Mozambique organised with the existing 32 NFE providers, with the largest being the Government. In Mozambique, NFE is normally for adults, adults being considered as persons as from age 15. Mr Rwezuva of WGES/ NESIS had undertaken a technical assistance visit to Mozambique in May 2004 during which he and the team visited Boane district, thirty-two centres and held consultations with directors at provincial, district and Ministry of Education level. Upon analysis of submitted questionnaire responses, the conclusion of both the national team and the providers was that the questionnaire was good.

Nationally, providers also existed in the areas of health, agriculture and lifeskills. An NFE database, the first in the history of the Ministry of Education, was established at the Directorate of Planning and would be ready between October and November 2004. A database for formal education had been in place since 1981. The constraints encountered thus far were, distance between providers and delays in disbursement of funds to facilitate project implementation.

Namibia
In Namibia, adult learning is what is termed “Non Formal Education.” A country team was set up whose original composition has changed due to staff turnover. Through distribution of questionnaires, the process of identifying NFE providers was initiated. Approximately fifty-eight completed questionnaires were submitted based upon which a directory entitled “Adult Learning and Training Providers in Namibia 2003” was compiled. The Ministry of Basic Education, Sport and Culture provided the funds for the undertaking.

Uganda
Unlike in Namibia and Mozambique where the implementing arm of the project was the Ministry of Education, in the case of Uganda, it fell in the ambit of the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development.

The national technical team comprises a coordinator, systems developer, data collection administrator, an expert and two NFE staff. Team members were drawn from the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Ministry of Education and Sports, a non governmental organisation called LABE and Makere University.

To kick start the project, a workshop for all stakeholders was organised on 4 May 2004 with Messrs Rwezuva and Chitando acting as facilitators. A feasibility and needs study amongst NFE stakeholders was conducted in advance of designing a national database, resulting in production of a report. NFE providers in Government and the private sector were consulted. Using information from the study, the team drew up a questionnaire which assisted in designing the database. A prototype database had been developed and was presented to all present. Mr Rwezuva’s eventual input was awited before the system could be tested. Within the framework of its operations, the team encountered the following challenges:

Education: Adult Education at Nakaseke Multi Purpose Community Telecentre.

• Delays in disbursement of funds.
• Conflicting schedules of the country team.
• Lack of facilitation of country technical team.
• Lack of adequate skills in MS Access among the country technical team.

The following recommendations were made by Uganda to overcome the situations outlined above:

• Timely disbursement of funds by NESIS.
• Drawing up of harmonised schedule by the national team.
• Incorporating facilitation of technical team in budget by NESIS.
• Organising of appropriate training for technical team by NESIS.

The meeting observed that as evidenced by the presentations, work was well under-way in all three countries despite the presence of some constraints. Citing the case of Uganda in relation to the other countries, there were differences regarding which ministry was responsible for the project.

Brief presentation of UNESCO Windhoek NFE statistical capacity building activities and discussion
In Namibia, an opportunity exists for information sharing in the field of NFE between the UNESCO Wind-hoek office and the Ministry of Basic Education, Sport and Culture through the national technical team. In the 2004-2005 budget, funds had been allocated for “standard setting mechanisms in literacy and non formal education.” The aim was for Namibia to share its experiences with other countries, particularly in identifying relevant indicators for literacy and non formal education monitoring and evaluation. Namibia decided to bring on board Lesotho, South Africa and Swaziland, chiefly because they fell within the UNESCO Windhoek Cluster. Phases involved in the exercise were as follows:
• Phase 1: review current indicators, identify relevant indicators for monitoring and evaluation.
• Phase 2: review current data systems, collect, review and recommend good practices.
In Namibia there are three ministries of education as the country is moving towards a sector-wide approach. These are: Ministry of Women and Child Welfare, Ministry of Basic Education, Sport and Culture and Ministry of Higher Education.

The meeting observed that to overcome the issue of conflict, overlap of responsibilities and loss of information amongst the three ministries mentioned, there must be someone responsible to measure standards by setting instruments for this purpose — the meeting was informed that there was an attempt to integrate the information systems of the three education ministries.

Definition issues and review of the scope of NFE as perceived in the participating pilot countries
There are internationally recognised definitions of NFEapart from considering it merely as ‘adult literacy’ —the issue is whether the definition of NFE, as understood by the three countries, conformed to the international view. A list of definitions was distributed to the meeting, sourced from the UIS (“Manual for Management Information On Non-Formal Education, Montreal, Canada”).

The Uganda team was aware of the broad definition but considered issues of practicality in terms of data collection for the database, especially in the face of limited funds. Thus, the team deemed it prudent to concentrate on adult literacy and equivalency programmes with a view to adding computer training, faith and agricultural programmes at a later stage.

Namibia it was using “adult learning” and not NFE as a concept. The definition was wider than literacy alone as there were a number of providers in the fields of health and agriculture. The problem being encountered was that some providers of NFE did not consider them-selves to be so. This is the reason why out of the 200 questionnaires distributed to providers only 58 responded.

Well done ladies and gentlement! Successful candidates of an adult learners course organised by UNESCO Clubs in Masaka district.

Mozambique’s definition was that NFE was a means of reducing illiteracy, be it for adults or children who for one reason or another, could not enrol in formal schools. It also referred to life skills in agriculture, health, carpentry and HIV/AIDS prevention.
The meeting acknowledged the definitions of the countries but underscored that from the perspective of the NESIS NFE pilot projects, the three countries had to serve as models and because of that requirement, their spectrum of NFE had to be more broad, hence the need to consider the internationally recognised definitions so that if the project was used by any other country as a case study, that country would be able to fit in to the picture. More-over, it was important to note that subjects considered as ‘lifeskills’ were sometimes offered in the formal education system curriculum, further indicating that NFE should be widely defined.

Furthermore, a pilot project seeks to identify feasibility — it is only when the venture goes full scale that concentration can be on specifics components. The meeting concluded that there was need to adjust the terms of reference of the pilot projects to take into account definition issues.