Local data needs for the Systemic Management and Mitigation of the Impact of HIVAIDS on Education

1
Local data needs for the Systemic Management and
Mitigation of the Impact of HIV/AIDS on Education

• HIV/AIDS Education Seminar,
• Mombasa, November 2002

2
HIV/AIDS Impact on Education

• The primary impact of HIV/AIDS is to explode the
  scale of existing systemic and management
  problems in education
• It will directly and indirectly affect
• Labour attrition, recruitment training
• Access, enrolment gender equity
• Increase orphaning drop out rates
• Reduce household/school fee income
• Learner transition, graduation rates quality
• Some geographic areas more than others

3
EMIS System Management

• Conventional EMIS at best capture annual
  snapshots of the system
• Generally these systems tend to be centralised
• Often delays in providing information to
  different levels of education management
• Few EMIS systematically deliver timeous or
  reliable data or provide basic decision support
  information
• Result is failure to provide reliable evidence of
  HIV/AIDS impact or even regular system
  performance or crisis.

4
EMIS Management Demand

• Information system failure stems from lack of
  management demand, yet, demand must be stimulated
  by sustained evidence of useful, value-added
  information and enhanced capacity
• Improved EMIS and decision support information is
  good for education and for HIV/AIDS management
  and mitigation
• HIV/AIDS managers need key indicators to inform
  system management and project implications over
  time
• Relevant, consumable information will create
  political awareness and mobilise commitment and
  support for response.

5
HIV/AIDS Data Requirements

• Key feature should be the capacity to capture
  time-series data.
• Labour Establishment and temporary permanent
  loss by reason, age, gender, type and school (To
  inform recruitment training, loss of contact
  time/quality)
• Enrolment Temporary permanent loss by reason,
  age, gender, grade and school (To inform access,
  gender equity, orphaning pregnancy rates)

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HIV/AIDS Data Requirements (2)

• Transition graduation rates Ex-EMIS (To
  project output tertiary supply)
• Orphaning Incidence by month (trends)
• Fees Loss through school exemptions
• Geographic variation Analysis by school.

7
The Response

• A decentralised local level data collection tool
  (DEMMIS) has been developed to test viability of
  monthly data capture
• The pilot system has been designed to capture key
  indicators of HIV/AIDS impact on a monthly basis,
  to guide response at the school, circuit and
  district levels
• The data captured reinforces school, circuit and
  district management systems and supplements
  annual EMIS data with time-series and trends.

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The DEMMIS Pilot in KwaZulu-Natal
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The Geography

• KwaZulu Natal is South Africas most populous
  province at around 8.5 million
• It has a school enrolment of almost 2,7 million,
  taught by about 76 000 teachers in almost 6 000
  schools
• It is also the worst affected by HIV/AIDS with an
  antenatal HIV prevalence rate of over 36 in
  2002
• HIV/AIDS impact varies dramatically over the
  province
• Pilot districts were selected on the basis of
  their demographic mix.

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Guiding Principles

• Pilot was initiated in 95 schools in the
  Dannhauser District, in February 2001
• This is the first known systematic time series of
  school data designed to capture indicators of
  HIV/ AIDS impact
• Was not heavily managed or monitored by the
  regional and district officials
• The role the system plays in HIV/AIDS impact and
  management issues were down played viewed
  rather as a general, local level management tool
• Used the opportunity to provide other EMIS data
  and training in data capture management and
  utilisation to the District Office.

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Guiding Principles (2)

• Should not be duplicatory or onerous on
  Principals or District Officials
• Should dovetail with existing functions
• Must be available in average school
• Must not be difficult to capture
• Must have obvious management value
• Must be simple as to obviate fabrication or
  falsification
• It should be seen as an adjunct to EMIS with the
  capacity to link annual data with monthly time
  series and verify the reliability of conventional
  EMIS.

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The DEMMIS system

• Entails the collection of monthly statistics from
  schools - on teachers, learners, support staff
  and school governing bodies
• School summary forms are submitted monthly and
  then captured at District Office Level
• Data capture programme allows education managers
  to access specific reports generated per school,
  circuit and district
• Monthly summary reports around management
  reporting requirements
• Exception reports, built into the programme,
  identify trends that invites intervention from
  managers at all levels.

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The DEMMIS System (2)

• Provides time-series data on
• enrolment, absenteeism, attrition, contact time,
  drop-out, pregnancy, orphaning and fees
• The school, Circuit and District and Regional
  level all involved and informed
• Indicators of HIV/AIDS impact can be quickly and
  easily derived from these.

DEMMIS development supported by DfID
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(No Transcript)
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Information flows
District Office Captures Form A and consider
reports generated
District Office provide forms and training
Schools submit Form A on monthly basis
Schools provided with feedback summary
analysis
Schools complete Form A and B on monthly basis
Summary data provided to the Regional Office
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Reporting mechanisms

• Some of the reports that are made available
• Change in enrolment patterns
• Temporary or permanent absence of teachers and
  pupils
• Loss of contact time between pupil and teacher
• Pregnancy rates
• Orphaning issues
• Reduction in school fee income
• Change in composition of the School Governing
  Body
• Others ..

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Preliminary analysis-Findings within 32
schoolsFebruary to November 2001
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Ladysmith Region, KwaZulu-Natal
Dannhauser District
Ladysmith Region
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Normandien Circuit, Dannhauser District
Dannhauser District
Normandien Circuit
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Profile of Dannhauser District

• Circuit Schools Teachers Pupils
• Buffalo Flats 20 342 12 261
• Normandien 38 392 14 081
• Osizweni East 23 475 18 229
• Osizweni West 14 307 11 321
• Total 95 1 516 55 892
• Dannhauser District
• as of Region 12 16 15

Snap 2001 figures, KZNDEC EMIS Unit
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Profile of Dannhauser District

• Circuit Schools Teachers Pupils
• Buffalo Flats 20 342 12 261
• Normandien 38 392 14 081
• Osizweni East 23 475 18 229
• Osizweni West 14 307 11 321
• Total 95 1 516 55 892
• Dannhauser District
• as of Region 12 16 15

Snap 2001 figures, KZNDEC EMIS Unit
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Return Rate of Forms
Focus on the 32 schools which submitted for the
period Feb to Nov
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Pupil enrolment

• Enrolment fluctuated significantly over the
  period
• February 13 177 pupils
• March peaked with 13 219 pupils
• November12 910 pupils
• A net cumulative decline of 2.2, equivalent to
  an annualized decline of 2.6

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Change in enrolment figures
Net decline 2.2 over the period Annualised
2.6 decline
-21
-29
-13
-33
42
-35
-103
-43
-32
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Absenteeism Rates

• Absenteeism rates for pupils and teachers
  followed similar trends
• Absenteeism rates peak in July and for teachers
  in October too
• The net effect of educator absenteeism and leave
  was a loss of 7 of available contact time over
  the period

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Absenteeism rates days lost as of available
time
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Loss of contact time - teachers
Annualised loss of 8.4 time
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Pupil attrition or drop-out

• Over the 10 month period 517 pupils left school
• More female pupils (51) left that males
• Reason for loss
• Drop-out (49)
• Unknown reason (21)
• Pregnancy was responsible for 5 of the total
  loss.
• 26 pupils (5) cited orphaning
• 3 loss due to death
• 1loss indicated due to financial stress

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Pupils that left the system
13 177 pupils in Feb 4 cumulative loss 5
annualised loss
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Reported reasons for pupils leaving the system
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Teacher attrition

• Of the 371 teachers in the sample in February, 16
  left their school posts by end of November
• Annualized rate of 5.1 loss
• Reasons cited
• Promotion 44
• Leaving the ministry 13
• Other 36 (includes illness and death)

32
Cumulative loss of teachers
371 teachers in Feb 4.3 cumulative loss
5 annualised loss
33
Teachers loss from the system, indicating reason
34
Teacher and pupil loss to the system
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Number of pupils orphaned -reported month by
month
Schools 32 Enrolment 13 177 Annualised 1.5
36
Number of new orphans reported - cumulatively
37
Orphans at one school
Enrolment 684 Additional Orphans 13 School
leavers 29
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School Fee exemptions

• Useful indicator of economic impact
• 3 categories of exemption provided
• Full doubled to 203 granted
• Partial trebled to 79 granted
• Conditional grew from 0 to 37 granted
• There is a correlation when comparing fee
  exemptions to the incidence of orphaning

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Number of Orphans, Normandien Schools
Ladysmith Region
Urban Areas
Towns
No orphans
1 orphan
2 13 orphans
More than13 orphans
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Cummulative number of school feeexemptions
granted, by category
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Fee exemptions in relation to number of reported
orphans
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School Governing Body Resignations
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Data utilization
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Data utilization illustrative examples

• Strengthen links between the district office and
  schools district officials more empowered
• Improved reporting on schools
• more detail available, more complete picture
  sketched and tracking of changes within the
  academic year
• Improving quality of data strengthening EMIS,
  information utilization and reporting
• Tracking policy implementation
• Prioritizing interventions and targeting
  programmes of intervention
• Feedback to schools and sharing of information
  with regional office
• Monitoring impact of HIV/AIDS on schools

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Lessons Learnt
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The Lessons

• Confirms it is possible to identify and collect
  school-level indicators and analyse these at the
  district level
• Confirms that a time series of monthly returns
  can provide unprecedented insights into impact
  and trends
• Shows trends previously unseen in annual school
  census data and analysis
• Confirms HIV/AIDS is exacerbating existing levels
  of dysfunction
• Impact appears lower than some projections
  perhaps due to sample but confirms upward
  trends.

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The Lessons (2)

• Proves viability of systematising routine
  data/indicator collection to inform local level
  management response
• Provides basis for regular monitoring and early
  warning of HIV/AIDS impact and generation of
  HIV/AIDS specific indicators
• Pilot results suggest that DEMMIS provides an
  effective, complementary method of collecting and
  analysing key HIV/AIDS indicators
• Alerts local officials to the relevance and
  importance of education data strengthens EMIS
  and informed decision making.

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Conclusions

• HIV/AIDS is a management issue and impact on
  every aspect of education system management
• In order to manage and mitigate we need to be
  able to regularly measure and evaluate the
  situation
• This can be achieved through the collection of
  simple, available indictors using existing
  structures and personnel
• Monthly analysis empowers management reporting
  and focuses response and promotes HIV/AIDS
  awareness at all levels.