The Government through the Ministry of Education has proposed the adoption of the primary school data system National Education Management System (Nemis) at universities countrywide.
Currently, the Government uses Nemis in primary and secondary education. A sister version christened Higher Education Management System (Hemis) is currently under review after it was proposed to be used at the tertiary level.
Hemis adoption was discussed during the first international annual conference held at the Cooperative University on Friday, September 23, with stakeholders discussing better ways to improve university data management.
According to Dr. Shem Mbandu, a senior lecturer at The Co-operative University of Kenya, the proposed system (Higher Education System) in the university, promises to address challenges arising from inconsistent data sets maintained in a disparate database across multiple data agencies.
Some of the challenges it seeks to address include the absence of a single point of truth by a student undertaking higher education, inadequate consolidated data, and replicated reporting to various agencies.
Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS), Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), Universities Funding Board (UFB), and Commission for University Education (CUE) are among the agencies that will benefit from the system.
"Hemis proposes a single source of truth for all stakeholders through integration with all agencies through secure communication protocols, student tracking systems, and staff data in the public, private universities, and TVET institutions.
"Information sharing and data principles will support decision making, strategy formulation, and planning," the Ministry of Education stated.
Meanwhile, Nemis used in primary and secondary schools is a web-based data management system that collects information from educational institutions, and processes and reports the status of designed indicators with a view to providing the sector with a basis for effective management of schools.
The objective of Nemis is to help streamline the data management for informed decision-making and planning of the education sector by hosting student/pupil data, linked to a Unique Identifier that is randomly generated using a verifiable algorithm.
Data captured on NEMIS is also used to disburse government fee capitation among other functions.
“With its upgraded server infrastructure and improved system architecture, the system serves to strengthen the user experience of our users,” CSMagoha stated.
"Through these processes, the Ministry and its stakeholders will be able to effectively access and monitor indicators to aid in their mandate and in their decision-making processes,” he added.
