The State IT Agency (SITA) is casting about for proposals for management IT on behalf of the national Department of Education (DOE) that could see the latter spend billions in coming years to accurately track children in schools and properly manage the country's Further Education and Training (FET) colleges.
SITA and the DOE are valuating industry proposals and costing for two major projects - a business management system, for the FET Colleges (Tender 614/2007), and integrating two complementary, but disconnected learner management systems (Tender 617/2007).
SITA spokesman Elton Fortuin declined to comment on the cost of the projects, saying the "request for bid" process was intended to solicit industry's ideas for both solutions and costing. But an industry source involved in one of the two tenders said the price could easily run into the billions.
The DOE, which last year received 20c of every one of the R534 billion government spent - or 5.5% of GDP, can well afford the price. In 2006/7, the DOE spent just R49 756 112 of its R105.5 billion budget on IT, down from the R57 281 161 the year before.
Business Report newspaper in November last year noted that SA "spends more on education - on a per capita, absolute and percentage of GDP - than many other countries", including most of the developed world. "Yet billions go unspent and schools churn out tens-of-thousands of young people who are in effect not qualified to do anything".
FET pilot
The FET tender will start with a "pilot initiative" at three colleges: Orbit, in the North West Province; Ehlanzeni, in Mpumalanga; and Tshwane North, in Gauteng. The tender document notes that, at present, "there is limited business management systems capability available to FET Colleges".
The document prescribes a four-part process, of which the first two make up the "tender phase".
"After this, there will be a shortlist of two vendors."
Part B of the tender phase will be a "proof of concept, where an in-depth evaluation of the offered business management system with the two short-listed vendors will take place".
"Here also, analysis will be made of costs and time required to have the BMS implemented at the three pilot FET colleges," the tender document adds. "After the tender phase, a contract will be awarded to one vendor for the delivery of the solution and required services to implement the solution at the three pilot colleges."
What they want
The tender document says the solution should comprise three information systems, catering for:
* The recording of data to enable colleges to measure and report on performance linked to primary processes (core business), such as student pass rates and throughput times, learning programmes output and student performance against FET performance targets using various indicators.
* The recording of data to enable colleges to measure and report on performance linked to secondary processes such as financial performance, hostel management, stores, human resources, and maintenance.
* The processing of data using business intelligence technology for both internal and external audiences.
The tender document says the first two should be commercial off-the-shelf systems, while the third "may be based upon a (standard) business intelligence add-on, or as an integrated part of the system offered by the vendor".
The document makes it clear the successful vendor will then roll out the technology to all 50 of the country's FET colleges.
Saving schools
At the school level, the DOE is keen to integrate its school administration system, known as SASAMS, and the Central Education Management Information System (CEMIS).
"The main objective of this project is to develop a solution that will include the redevelopment of a Web-enabled SASAMS and integration with CEMIS," the tender document for that project says. "This is to ensure the capturing of the same information and the duplication of records in a consolidated (central) database is prevented on both systems. Data must be captured at the source once only (ie, at the school level) in order to ensure a single point of truth."
It adds that the Western Cape will serve as a pilot site for the project "prior to a possible full implementation nationally, which at the moment is viewed as a longer-term objective". SA has about 28 000 schools and a considerable supervisory structure monitoring these.
The projects form part of education minister Naledi Pandor's wider departmental ICT strategy that has as its stated aim: "Connectivity for all learners and educators by 2013."
System objectives:
* To redevelop SASAMS as a Web-based school administration system, as a complete open source solution.
* To integrate the redeveloped SASAMS with the existing learner tracking system, CEMIS.
* To ensure that information is only captured in one place and there is no duplication of information.
* To ensure that the consolidated database will only have one instance of a learner.
* To ensure that all public ordinary schools in the Western Cape Education Department have access to the
newly developed system
* To ensure that the solution is deployable nationally to schools with varying degrees of technology infrastructure.
* To ensure that a transparent migration path exists from the current version of SASAMS to the new version so that schools do not have to re-capture data.
* To ensure that the solution provides management with accurate statistics as planning and strategic management as well as funding of education will be based on reliable and accurate data.
* To identify, design and develop any enhancements to the solution that may be required.
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