Author: Ramon L. Rodriguez (National University – Manila)

The current pandemic highlights further the problem in the educational sector in the country. Even before the pandemic, the World Bank conducted an assessment of the country’s education system and found that a crisis in education existed. As we know, education is one of the foundations for the success of every community. Can we develop strategies to address this crisis using data analytics in the local settings? The LGU should explore this strategy to develop a concrete solution based on data. Decisions of developing new programs should be data-driven, especially in the local government settings.

If data-driven decisions are highly utilized, many improvements can be made to every LGU, including fiscal adequacy. Suppose the LGU has updated data on the profile of students, households, and problems encountered by every student. In that case, it can be a basis for a new strategy for addressing issues in education. Say, for instance, what support is needed by certain schools and what resources. The data may be available, but it is important to structure it and become ready for analysis. At this point, data analytics plays a significant role.

On the other hand, data analytics can also be used to match the needs of every LGU in terms of job availability on a local and global scale. The matching gap in skills needed in the industry has been highlighted for years, but actions to address this are still not concrete. However, different agencies have undertaken several initiatives but not enough to solve the problem. Almost every LGU in the Philippines has community colleges where locals can enroll. The intention of establishing community colleges is anchored on the principle that education is one of the backbones of community development. Having a community college is a great idea, but we have to make sure the programs offered are sustainable and benefit the family. We also want to avoid underemployment scenarios wherein graduates are employed not in their respective specialization. If we have data on the graduates and the skills needed in the local, national and global, then it is easy for us to match and decide what programs can be offered by schools. The budget for education is allocated per LGU. At the national level, almost 16% of the national budget is for education, but still, we have a crisis in education. The need to use data analytics in addressing issues in the education sector is a must.

This article is the author’s reflection on the insight gained from the recently concluded OCDex 2022 Public Data Analytics Fellowship Trainings.

For more information about the article, please reach out to the author: rlrodriguez@national-u.edu.ph or Layertech labs support at learning@layertechlab.com