Lao Education and Sports Management Information System (LESMIS)
A state-of-the-art GIS-enabled data visitation and aggregation platform for improving monitoring and planning at all levels of the education system
UNICEF, as part of the EU-supported Partnership for Strengthening the Education System in Lao PDR (PSES) programme, is supporting the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) with the development of the Lao Education and Sports Management Information System (LESMIS). This GIS-enabled data visualization and aggregation platform is to enhance the data quality, ensure easy access, and increase the use of data for monitoring and planning, by schools/institutions and communities, districts, provinces, MoES and development partners.
The LESMIS Platform will also support the monitoring of progress towards the 9th Education and Sports Development Plan (ESSDP) 2021-25 by drawing key data from the different MoES MIS, the use of data collection Apps (e.g. on COVID-19 response) and browser-based tools. By collecting and displaying these quantitative and qualitative data in user-friendly automated dashboards MoES will greatly enhance its capacity for monitoring progress and planning towards realization of 9th ESSDP 2021-25.
On Friday 29 January 2021 MoES organized a workshop with key development partners to give an update on the progress in the development the LESMIS Platform, which was chaired by H.E. Ms. Sengdeuane Lachanthaboun, Minister of Education and Sports who highlighted the importance of the LESMIS Platform.
“Data is extremely important to planning in the MoES’s work. If the data available to us is reliable and accurate, then our planning will subsequently become more effective at all levels.”
The workshop also allowed for discussing the main output of the first phase of the LESMIS development; the MoES ICT infrastructure and human resource (HR) capacity assessment. This assessment report of MoES ICT infrastructure (software and hardware) and HR capacity to administer, maintain and further develop the software in use provides the ministry with a good opportunity to consider its capacity and decide on its ICT infrastructure and HR capacity. The participants welcomed the key findings and suggestions for ensuring the long-term sustainability of the LESMIS.
A next step and key component of the LESMIS development strategy is the engagement with key education stakeholders from all levels of the system. By engaging these future “users” early on in the shaping of the LESMIS Platform MoES aims to ensure it responds to their data needs for monitoring and planning.
