Nigerian govt to launch platform to automate school census, make education data public

The Nigerian government will on Wednesday unveil the Digital National Education Management Information System (DNEMIS), designed to consolidate all education data for schools and learners on one platform and make it available to the Nigerian public.

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While launching the public portal, the government would also inaugurate the DNEMIS state implementation teams.

This is contained in a statement by the spokesperson for the Federal Ministry of Education, Folasade Boriowo.

The statement quoted the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, as saying that DNEMIS would help eliminate fragmented education data, strengthen evidence-based planning, improve accountability and enhance service delivery across Nigeria’s education sector.

The development of the platform is part of the implementation of the Nigeria Education Data Infrastructure (NEDI), one of the reforms under the Nigeria Education Sector Renewal Initiative (NESRI).

The education ministry had also introduced a Learner Identification Number (LIN), which assigns every student a permanent academic identity throughout their educational journey.

More than 32 million students are enrolled on the DNEMIS portal, according to the National Project Coordinator of the Special Programmes Operations and Implementation Unit in the Office of the Minister of Education, Adebayo Onigbanjo.

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Digitise annual school census

Addressing journalists during a pre-launch media briefing in Abuja, the Special Assistant to the minister on Digital Communications and E-Learning, Mojoyin Adebajo, explained that DNEMIS was developed on the globally recognised District Health Information Software 2 (DHIS2) platform to modernise education administration and strengthen evidence-based decision-making.

The DHIS2 is a free and open-source software platform for the collection, reporting, analysis and dissemination of aggregate and individual-level data developed by the Health Information Systems Programme (HISP). The development is coordinated by the University of Oslo with support from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) and other donors.

Ms Adebajo said the platform will digitise the Annual School Census, replacing largely manual data collection processes with an integrated digital system capable of generating accurate, realtime information on schools, learners, teachers and education infrastructure.

She highlighted the Public DNEMIS Portal as one of the initiative’s major innovations, noting that for the first time, selected official education data will be publicly accessible to researchers, policymakers, journalists, development partners, civil society organisations and the general public.

According to her, this will promote transparency, improve access to credible information and encourage broader stakeholder participation in shaping the future of education in Nigeria.

The education ministry also acknowledged the valuable technical support provided by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the University of Oslo, describing the collaboration as a demonstration of the importance of strategic partnerships in accelerating sustainable education reforms.

Also speaking, Mr Onigbanjo said the initiative was conceived to address decades of weak, fragmented and inconsistent education data that have constrained effective planning, policymaking, monitoring and governance across the education sector.

Mr Onigbanjo explained that the education ministry developed NEDI as a comprehensive national framework to harmonise, standardise and strengthen education data management across all levels of education, with DNEMIS serving as its flagship digital platform.

According to him, DNEMIS will provide timely, reliable and accessible data to support planning, budgeting, policymaking, monitoring and improved service delivery, while ensuring that every learner, teacher, school and public investment in education is captured within a unified national database.