The National Education Management Information System (NEMIS) is an online system that the Government of Kenya unveiled after a series of tests last year. The system is aimed at managing the vast education sector in Kenya.
Following a successful test using 600 institutions in the country, the National Education Management Information System was ready for rollout countrywide.
They deployed the platform to aid the digital registration of all primary and secondary school students. It is worth noting that the initiative was conceptualized to manage the inconsistencies of Kenya’s large and complex education sector that serves millions of students in about 120,000 learning institutions.
The system produces unique identification numbers for registered students to track their performance from primary, high, and tertiary levels. The tracking is essential because it will help the government formulate better plans and policies to heighten offerings of the education sector.
NEMIS was set to become the sole source of accurate and up-to-date data for the Kenyan education system. It is designed to provide quality data that is reliable, relevant, and easily accessible. NEMIS is expected to serve millions of learners in over 120,000 institutions.
NEMIS System Features and Purpose(s)
The official link (URL) to the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS) portal is https://nemis.education.go.ke/.
NEMIS Modules
The NEMIS comprises four key modules, each with sub-modules within them. The functions and details of the modules are captured below.
Institutions Module
This module captures the registration and physical aspects of an institution. It achieves this through its six sub-modules, as presented below.
Institutions Registration: The purpose of this submodule is to register an institution with the Ministry; both existing and new schools will use this.
School infrastructure: It captures equipment and fixed assets in terms of quantity and acquisition date
School Utility: Captures the utility name and brief description of the utility type.
Co- Curricula: Captures the co-curricular activities in institutions, year, and the highest level achieved.
Teaching and learning material: Captures specific learning materials, both the course and supplementary books.
Emergency reporting: Enables the school administration to capture any disaster that affects the institution.
Learners Module
This module captures every detail necessary from learners beginning from their registration, their performance and progression in the education system, and their transition from one level to another. The learner module has five sub-modules, as follows:
Unique Personal Identifier: This module enables the learner to input a birth certificate, ID number, or Alien number where the system will auto-generate a UPI.
Learner Registration: Captures contact details of the learner.
Student mobility: Captures details of the learner, mobility type, discharging institution, and the new institution.
Performance Progression: Captures performance details of each learner after completion of a specific level, e.g., Primary, Secondary, etc.
Learner Talent: Captures details on the learner’s talents.
Staff Module
This module captures every detail necessary from staff members (teaching and non-teaching), beginning from their appointment and mobility within the education sector. The module has five sub-modules, as follows:
Teachers and Non-teaching staff registration Module: This interface captures teachers’ and non-teaching staff’s details in an institution.
Teacher Mobility: This interface captures transfers of teachers from one institution to the other. It also displays the transfer history of a teacher.
Teaching areas: This Interface captures subjects/units a teacher teaches in an institution.
Study Areas: This interface captures areas a teacher is trained on.
Teachers’ responsibilities: This interface captures duties assigned to teachers within an institution.
Finance Module
The finance module helps track income and expenditure in all institutions through its five submodules.
Fees: This interface captures the fee amount of an institution with all the approved fee items.
Capitation: This interface sets up the capitation to be disbursed to public Primary and Secondary schools in a given term within a calendar year.
Income Returns: This interface captures all amounts the Institution receives within a year.
Development Fund: Its interface captures projects funded in an institution within a given financial year.
Expenditure Returns: This interface captures the actual amount spent, milestones achieved, and the percentage completed in a project.
Password
This interface lets the user change the password whenever they forget the login details.
The reports interface allows users to generate routine and ad-hoc reports specific to their mandate. This interface will allow data export for advanced analysis based on prescribed formats (Excel).
NEMIS is expected to enhance the following:
Proper referencing of schools using a School Code: Through NEMIS, each learning institution will be issued a mandatory unique four-character identifier. The Ministry says that any school with no unique code shall be deemed not to exist.
Proper and Consistent Student/Pupil Identification: NEMIS generates a Unique Personal Identifier (UPI). You will use this unique six-character code for identification and reference at every stage of the learner’s education.
Accountability: NEMIS is expected to enable the Ministry to efficiently and transparently allocate resources to learners to enhance maximum efficiency and value for the Kenyan taxpayer.
Disaggregated learner-level data on educational expenditures will help policymakers establish equity and efficiency in resource allocation, for instance, book ratios, pupil-teacher ratios, etc.
It will also help purge ghost children and ensure capitation allocation is used for intended purposes.
Informed decision-making and planning: NEMIS big data will be analyzed and then utilized in decision-making at all levels of education. Data-driven planning is more effective for an education system as resources are allocated effectively.
Monitoring and Evaluation: NEMIS is expected to generate education statistics on institutions, enrolment, human resources, and physical facilities hence ease in monitoring and evaluation
Target Group for NEMIS Users
This manual is designed for use by education stakeholders, key among them the following groups:
- Ministry of Education
- Ministries, Departments, and Agencies
- Teachers
- ICT professionals
- Learners
- Parents/Guardians
- Development Partners
- Kenya Primary School Heads Association
- Kenya Secondary School Heads Association
- National Secondary School Association
- Kenya Private School Association
- System Specifications
To effectively access the NEMIS portal, the following specifications are the minimum requirements.
i) Hardware: 2.4 GHz processor; 1 Gigabyte of Random Access Memory (RAM) for Windows Vista and higher Operating System (OS); 120 Gigabytes available hard disk space.
ii) Software: The system is compatible with all Operating Systems, e.g., Windows 7, Windows 10, iOS (Apple), and Android, among others. Internet browsers, including internet explorer, Safari, Opera Mini, Mozilla Firefox, and Google Chrome, can be used to access the system. You will need applications such as Microsoft Office and Open Office, among others, available in the market to access the system’s outputs.
iii) Network Connectivity: Broadband connectivity at least 3G with 2 Megabytes per second (Mbps) speed on dedicated links.
iv) Other Devices: To ensure entire interaction with the system, specifically the data capture, users should have a digital camera to capture learners’ images. Other complementary and support devices will include a LaserJet printer, laptops, desktop computers, tablets, smartphones, or tablets.
I.T Services providers, whose clientele is the education sector, especially schools, perceive this would trigger a massive decline in the demand for process automation software in learning institutions.
While the program appears to embrace the uptake of digital solutions in addressing conventional shortcomings that have plagued the education sector, especially regarding keeping track of student’s progress, it fails to demonstrate a solid plan for effective registrations in remote parts of the country.
Notably, this program will need constant updates, so institutions will have robust connectivity solutions to keep up with a relatively short working window.
