DOE tracks pupils` progress

By Siyabonga Africa for SITA
Johannesburg, 30 Sep 2008

The Department of Education (DOE) is launching the national Learner Unit Record Information and Tracking System (Lurits), aimed at tracking the movement of pupils from school to school throughout their entire school career.

The R136 million system was developed by the State IT Agency (SITA), and is expected to be operational by January 2010.

Education minister Naledi Pandor says Lurits will assign each pupil a unique tracking number that will remain with the pupil throughout their school careers. "With the new method of data collection in place, we will house the individual information records of each learner and these will be regularly updated with changes and movements," says Pandor.

The DOE states the central system is physically located at SITA, in Centurion, and is divided on a virtual level into nine provincial systems that interact at national level. The system contains an access control module that enables a province to delegate certain functions to district and regional level.

Compressed, encrypted

"Each file that is sent to the central system will be compressed and encrypted for security purposes," adds Pandor.

DOE deputy DG Firoz Patel says National Treasury allocated R136 million towards the project, to be shared between the provinces, while R30 million has been allocated for the national department.

A DOE statement explains the system will contain the data of all South African pupils in ordinary and special schools, from grade R to 12. The system seeks to enable education planners to ensure education resources are distributed fairly and equitably to enhance the education system.

Other objectives of the system include profiling pupils who exit the education system too early, determining the rate and patterns of intra- and inter-school and provincial transfers, and developing an accurate master list of all registered schools in the country.

The tracking component of the system will make it possible to identify pupils who exit one school and do not re-enter the system at another school.