INFORMATION FOR GREATER ACCESS TO EDUCATION

ROSE ANGELIE M. VIRAY

In 2011, the Department of Education initiated the Learners’Information System (LIS), an online facility that provides for the registration of learners enrolled in public schools.

Since its installation, the LIS has allowed the Department to generate the total public school enrolment based on the actual registration of learners.

The LIS is an innovative tool that the Department uses to manage information with the aim of promoting transparency, informed decision making, and empowerment at different levels of the organization. While being a techbased solution, the LIS involves an inclusive, community-driven process that thrives because of the active engagement and participation of all teachers, principals, planning officers and other DepEd personnel all throughout the Philippines.

Considering the size of the Department and the number schools under it, it is very critical for the Agency to be equipped with the right information at the right time to be able to make better decisions. This is essentially an online registry of learners that is important for any educational system or institution. There is a need to continually get to know learners better so that the Department can respond better.

This system is envisioned to allow the Department to better track its learners in both formal and non-formal instruction so that more appropriate interventions can be formulated in the provision of quality education for all Filipino learners. As an example, students who transfer from one school to another can be monitored and better assisted by using data from the LIS.

The use of automation and technology has helped the Department update information on enrollment for planning, budgeting and resource allocation among others. What used to take ten months to collect, consolidate and validate has now been reduced to three months.

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The author is Teacher I at Sapang Kawayan Elementary School, Masantol South District