From data to action: Enhancing education policy and practice through the use of innovative national data systems in Rwanda

 

Over a third of Rwanda's young people are not enrolled in education, work or training. There is an increasing demand for educational reforms that promote more competency-based education. Despite comprehensive education reforms in Rwanda, policy changes on paper have not always translated into effective classroom adjustments and improvements in student learning. A mismatch between policy changes and system incentives exacerbates the problem. While national data systems have the potential to provide education stakeholders with real-time information that can help them adapt and realign system incentives to improve education outcomes, there are gaps in their ability to digest the data coming through the national data systems and translate it into action. As a result, optimizing data-driven decision-making to reap the benefits of the reforms and increase educational quality has been limited.

In response, the NGO Educate! collaborated with the government and other development partners in Rwanda to create a national data system more aligned with competency-based education and student performance assessments. The Comprehensive Assessment Management Information System facilitates the gathering, analysis and application of formative data at all levels of education. It is a framework for collecting and storing continuous assessment scores in a national database.

This project seeks to explore how the Comprehensive Assessment Management Information System in Rwanda can provide information about teaching practices and student learning to policymakers, such as in Rwanda's Ministry of Education, and to identify how data can be better integrated into the policy and planning process. It will be carried out in collaboration with Educate! The study will use an iterative, applied research methodology to investigate how continuous assessment data systems can feed into effective data use and how this innovation can be scaled to support transformative change within education systems and promote improved student outcomes, gender equality, equity and inclusion.