In light of the education system’s sudden thrust into remote teaching and learning at all levels due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Education Minister Fayval Williams says the ministry is now moving with “alacrity to increase the digitisation and integration of information communication technology in the delivery, management, and administration of education”.

Williams made the announcement while addressing the House of Representatives during her contribution to the 2021-2022 Sectoral Debate on Wednesday (April 28).

According to the minister, while much has been accomplished in the way of digitising the sector as a response to the pandemic, there is now a need “to move expeditiously to digitise all our processes to improve our efficiency and effectiveness”.

Recognising that over the years many of the ministry’s processes have remained “archaic and manual”, Williams stated that this year will see a full implementation of the MyHR Plus software as a human resource, payroll, and pension management system as well as a robust Education Management Information System (EMIS).

The actions the EMIS system will support include:

• A digitised financial management system for all schools
• A digitised platform for learning support, inclusive of lesson plans, learning kits, tv and radio lessons, and video recordings of lessons.
• A digitised Teacher Substitution Platform
• A digitised platform to manage application and approval of the scholarships and grants for tertiary students
• A digitised platform to manage school infrastructure and maintenance services

It is the minister’s hope that these implementations will allow the availability of much-needed data at the push of a button, helping to inform decisions “under very agile and fluid circumstances”.

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