Timely Education Information Helps to Rebuild Education in South Sudan

Location: South Sudan

Newly independent in July 2011, the Republic of South Sudan had nearly 1.8 million children, scant available resources, and no time to lose in reforming its war-torn education system. Waiting for accurate, comprehensive and timely data about students, teachers and schools was not a feasible option. In a project started in 2006, we worked with the Ministry of General Education and Instruction to develop an education management information system (EMIS) that tracked and reported on 97 percent of all known schools — including remote village schools — and mapped 50 percent of these schools to Google Earth, providing easy access to up-to-date statistics on schools, teachers and students. By the end of 2011, reliable and easily accessible information was available for strategic planning, policymaking, resource allocation and decision making at every administrative level — from the national level to 10 states, 83 counties and 403 villages — data that will support the South Sudanese in building their new nation.