National Education Data Day was an opportunity for senior Ministry of Education officials to meet with principals of all government schools, in order to find out how data could be used to fine-tune the education system to meet growing expectations and challenges.

Chief Policy Advisor in the Education Policy & Planning Unit, Dr. Jo Wood, explained that the reason for the seminar was to verify with school heads that the information such as numbers of boys, girls, teachers, special needs, and English as a second language needs received during a one-day census on 31 January was accurate and reliable. “We wanted to verify with them that we were collecting the right kind of information,” she said.

“We want more and better information to help us improve, and we want to involve school principals in an ongoing process to use data to improve schools’ performance.

“The other big purpose was to kickstart principals into using data much more with their staff, so they could continue to discuss individual student learning needs.” Dr. Wood said.

Noting a recent improvement over the past six years in percentages of students who were gaining A-C passes in their Year 12 exams (from 23% in 2005 to 45% in 2011), Dr. Wood said that feedback from reliable data could help sustain such improvements, and thereby reach the Ministry’s aim of reaching a 75% pass rate in the future.

Addressing the heads of all government schools that were gathered at the seminar, Mary Rodrigues, Chief Officer in the Ministry of Education said: This dialogue today is a starting point. We will be looking at our data but what else do we need to know?

Mrs Rodrigues described the consultation process that has been going on ever since Minister Anglin took office. “He (Rolston Anglin) spent a lot of time in consultation.  We didn’t just tour schools, we visited the school campus, yes, but we had separate meetings with teachers and senior management teams to find out what are the good things that are happening in our system, but what are the challenges as well?

“We need data for many purposes; we need data to help us decide how we prioritise our spending. Where do we need to put the emphasis when it comes to resources?

“We also need data on student performance, and we want to talk about establishing national benchmarks for performance for our students. If we have good quality, reliable timely data, then we have a basis on which to really make targeted decisions within our system.”

Mrs Rodriguez said that today’s seminar would be part of an annual process of data collection and consultation with school staff.

Education Minister Rolston Anglin said: “Credible and reliable data on which to make decisions. If we are still going to go with what’s comfortable, – hunches; gut feelings, we are not going to end up with the type of reform that the country needs, that our children need, that our students deserve and in my mind have the right to.”