The Addis Ababa City Innovation Bureau is aggressively pushing for a digital transformation in public education, aiming to have all public schools integrated into its E-school management portal by next year. This ambitious move is set to fully digitize school registration across the capital within the next two years, ushering in an era of streamlined data management and improved educational oversight.
The Bureau, which has already successfully onboarded over 500 schools onto the portal, envisions creating a comprehensive educational data hub for the city. This initiative, dubbed "Smart Citizens," is a cornerstone of the broader, six-pillar smart city project championed by City Hall.
Enhancing Oversight and Efficiency
Yonas Demsew, the Bureau's Smart City Standard and Regulatory Team leader, highlighted the steady progress made over the past two years. He emphasized the portal's potential to significantly enhance supervision and ensure a more coordinated implementation of the school calendar, which schools in Addis Ababa have been strictly adhering to for the past year.
"We will onboard all schools in the capital in the coming year," Yonas stated, expressing confidence in meeting the ambitious deadline. He also anticipates the portal becoming a vital data source for research and a crucial tool for the education bureau in identifying and addressing inefficiencies across the entire school system. Notably, Technical Vocation Education and Training (TVET) colleges in the capital have also begun their integration onto the portal.
A Citywide Digital Transformation
The push for a comprehensive digitization of public services in Addis Ababa began in earnest three years ago. City Hall allocated a substantial 2.2 billion Birr towards information, communication, and technology (ICT) infrastructure in preparation for this smart city initiative. This significant investment has funded nearly two dozen software projects and approximately 20 network installation initiatives spanning critical public services, including land management, trade permits, tax administration, and residency services. Officials have frequently cited Shenzhen, China, as a leading example of the digital transformation Addis Ababa aspires to achieve.
The E-school management system is designed to complement existing digital efforts by other city administration offices, aiming for a unified digital portal. It currently facilitates services such as authentication and equivalency, school mapping, calendar cycles, and provides detailed information on approximately 565 public schools. The previous lack of a centralized system for education administration had exacerbated challenges like overcrowded classrooms, inefficient teacher deployments, and difficulties with the school feeding program.
A significant leap towards comprehensive student data collection is anticipated with the upcoming requirement of a national digital Fayda ID as a precondition for school registration in the next academic year. This crucial step is expected to vastly improve the accuracy and completeness of student enrollment data, which has historically been a major impediment to effective educational decision-making across Ethiopia. Reports, such as the UNICEF Education Expenditure Analysis for Oromia Regional State, have consistently highlighted how inaccurate data can lead to misallocation of funds, staffing issues, and inadequate infrastructure planning, ultimately impacting the quality of education and overall stakeholder satisfaction. The story is from Shega.