Reliable and regular education data can play an important role in planning and policy formulation and in monitoring and evaluation of the schooling system. Over the past two decades the Ministry of Human Development (MHRD) has put systems in place to enable the collection and use of data to formulate annual plans and monitor and evaluate the country’s progress towards achieving different educational goals. However these are not the only sources of education data in India. Other government [CSO] and non-government agencies [NCAER, ASER Centre] have also been collecting data on children and school indicators for several years, albeit each, at different, though regular intervals. But in spite of these multiple data sources, the use of education data has been quite limited. For one, the different data collection agencies collect data for specific purposes, and they seldom take into account the framework of other data sources at the time of planning and analysis. Two, preliminary analyses of the different data sources indicate several differences in definitions used and estimation methodologies. So the indicators constructed from the different data sources are quite different. Three, data is often assumed to be neutral, but one needs to be aware that it is not so. Data can be collected to inform the system as well as to judge it. People involved in the data collection process are conscious that it may be used against them. These concerns underlie the process of data collection and data analysis. These disparities in education statistics confuse the researchers and practitioners, and raise questions regarding the data quality of different data sets. There is thus an urgent need for the different agencies involved in data collection to take cognizance of these issues. The data users (planners, implementers, researchers) need to be aware of the variations in objectives, definitions and procedures underlying different data sources. They need to collaborate and to discuss among themselves the reasons for these differences and the ways these can be resolved. A seminar is being organized on August 19, 2015 as a preliminary attempt to bring together the different stakeholders to discuss these issues.
Agenda:
Session 1 - Government Education Data: Issues of Collection, Analysis and Management
9:30 a.m. - Introduction & Welcome
9:45 - 10:00 a.m. - Opening remarks
Dr TCA Anant, Chief Statistician of India & Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation
10:00 - 10:20 a.m. - DISE Data
Dr Arun Mehta, Director, DISE
10:20 - 10:40 a.m. - SRI- IMRB
Mr ABL Srivastava [ex-Chief Consultant, MHRD]
10:40 - 11:00 a.m. - UNESCO Institute of Statistics
Dr Shailendra Sigdel, UNESCO
11:00 - 11:30 a.m. - Discussion
11:30 - 11:45 a.m. - TEA
Session 2 - Other sources of Education Data: Issues of comparability and validation
11:45 a.m. - 12:05 p.m. - Indian Human Development Survey-2
Dr Sonalde Desai, University of Maryland & NCAER
12:05 - 12:25 p.m. - ASER survey
Ms Sukhpreet Sekhon
12:25 - 12:45 p.m. - Socio Economic and caste census (SECC]
Dr Himanshu, Prof. Economics, JNU
12:45 - 1:05 p.m. - State of Education Data: An assessment
Dr JBG Tilak, Prof NUEPA
1:05 - 1:30 p.m. - Discussion
1:30 - 2:00 p.m. - LUNCH
Session 3 - Use of education data in policy, planning and monitoring
2:00 - 2:15 p.m. - Opening Remarks
Dr SC Khuntia, Secretary School Education and Literacy, MHRD
2:15 - 2:35 p.m. - NSS education data
Dr Praveen Shukla, Director, Social Science Division, CSO
2:35 - 2:55 p.m. - Joint Review Monitoring Process and Use of Data
Ms Vimala Ramachandran, Director, Education Research Unit
2:55 - 3:15 p.m. - Impact of education data on policy: some general concerns
Ms Anuradha De, Director, Collaborative Research and Development [CORD]
3:15 - 3:35 p.m. - Using data for District Planning
DEO, Rajsamand, Rajasthan
3:35 - 3:55 p.m. - Using Data for State Planning
Delhi Government Representative
3:55 - 4:30 p.m. - Chair’s Remarks & Discussions
Mr Sumit Bose
4:30 - 5:00 p.m. - TEA |
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