United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

In developing policies and pedagogies for Singapore students, it was essential for policy makers to have data and trend analyses on students, and for educators to better understand the profile of the students they were teaching. There were various business units in MOE and each business unit required different types of student information. Over the years, various IT applications were developed in silo to support the business units, resulting in different aspects of student information being stored in multiple systems. Each system maintained some piece of student information required to support the operations.

Senior Management – Accuracy and Relevancy of Data

For decision making and policy formulation, student information from the various systems was required to make a complete organizational picture. However, the various pieces of the student information could be updated in any of the multiple systems in which they were stored. Multiple data entry could result in data inconsistency between the various systems. Therefore, the challenge lies in knowing which sources were accurate and relevant when the student information from various systems was put together.

Schools – Having a holistic perspective of students

Schools also required holistic perspective of students to apply appropriate teaching methods for different students. For example, teachers would like to understand a particular student’s academic grades, physical fitness state and behaviour, and how these were related, to understand the strength and weakness of the student. With this information stored in disparate systems, additional time and resources were required for teachers to have a holistic view of each student.

Students & Parents – Inefficient process and procedure

As there were multiple systems developed in silo by various business units, the students and parents were required to have multiple contacts with different business units. For example, students were required to provide their particulars multiple times for different processes, such as registration for schools, registration for examinations, and posting of students to schools. The business processes and systems were task-oriented, and not built to reflect the needs of our students and parents.

There were also limited e-services for students and parents and the manual process was cumbersome. On many occasions, students and parents had to be physically present at the schools or the Ministry for administration purpose. For example, a parent had to make a trip to the primary school to submit their choice of Secondary 1 schools. The form required signature from a parent and student. Schools would enter the school choices into the system and print a verification slip for the parent to sign again to confirm the correct entry of the choices.

There was a need to improve the capacity of the organization and customer experience through greater sharing of processes, data and systems across the Ministry.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
Today, MOE had a centralized student management system (School Cockpit) that captured various aspects of students (e.g. academic grades, physical fitness status, behavior, etc) and the system allowed teachers to have a holistic view of their students without spending too much time in data matching. Reports were generated for Principals, Teachers and the School Counselors so that relevant teaching method and counseling could be applied to bring out the best from the students. For example, school leaders could track the student performance over the years to study the progression of the student using the student tracking report. Teachers could also analyze the co-relation of students participating in a certain Co-Curricular Activities (CCA) against their academic performance to make possible inferences on whether certain types of students can cope with the CCA amidst the academic demands. In 2006, 99.8% of the participants of the School Cockpit Data and Information Management Workshops found that the data available in School Cockpit was useful for school planning and decision-making. By next year, teachers and principals would have the flexibility to generate customized student reports based on their own needs. Information collated from the centralized student management system (School Cockpit) was now shared with other business processes through the application systems supporting these business processes. These processes included student placement, national examination registration, scholarship & bursary administration and also emergency planning. Instead of the collection of data at individual business process, the relevant student information was shared among business functions. This has helped to reduce the discrepancies and therefore increased the productivity of the various business processes. Currently, MOE maintained a pupil databank on the Mainframe technology. Due to the limitations of the technology, there were limited backend interfaces between various student related administration systems. By mid 2008, the MOE Senior Management would have a central database (Student Hub) that captured all the student-related information from the various systems. In addition, the central database would also have the analyzed data and historical data online so that longitudinal studies could be conducted. It provided an overall picture at various levels that enables the Ministry to track and monitor policy implementation. The central database would also enable other agencies such as the Singapore Ministry of Defence, Health Promotion Board and Immigration & Checkpoint Authority to use this information for their own business needs. Business processes that involved interactions with students and parents were developed into online services (e-services). Parents and students are now able to transact with the Ministry through the Internet, increasing accessibility and reducing the time and resources incurred. Currently, we have implemented about 20 e-services, such as those that allow parents and students to select schools of their choice and register for national examinations. The e-services also enables Singapore Citizens residing overseas to register and secure a place for their children in schools before they return to Singapore. By Mar 2009, foreign students would be able to apply for scholarships without making a trip to Singapore.

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
The solutions were put together by both the Business Divisions and IT department through regular reviews of IT systems and business processes. The student administration-related backend processes that cut across divisions were reviewed to strengthen customer-centricity in service delivery. In the reviews, various business divisions involved were engaged and together everyone reviewed the existing processes. The improved processes were endorsed by MOE Senior Management. In addition, study groups with the schools were also conducted to identify the potential areas of improvement and to better understand the schools’ needs. Through the process reviews, the various student administration related processes such as the pre-school student administration processes, primary one & secondary one registration and student placement processes, the gifted education processes, scholarship administration processes and the examination administration processes were streamlined.

Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
a. What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
The main objectives of these various solutions were to ensure that student information was accurate and the student administration processes were efficient and effective through timely transfer of information across different business divisions and systems. This meant that the student data was shared among various business processes. The Ministry had taken an incremental and pragmatic approach to achieve this objective. Instead of implementing one mega system that managed all the processes related to student administration, MOE took the opportunities, such as IT solutions replacement due to obsolete hardware/software and major enhancements, to put in place various IT systems to support the integrated student management initiative. As the systems were implemented over a period of time, the Ministry ensured that the various IT systems were able to interface seamlessly. The MOE Enterprise Architecture enabled the seamless interface through the governance of the design and implementation of the IT systems. The MOE Enterprise Architecture mapped out important business processes, data and technology required to enable the integration and standardization required by the business operations of MOE. In this case, it set data and application standards to facilitate sharing of information and systems across divisions. In the long term, individual systems did not simply fulfill immediate needs, but also built capabilities to enable more sharing and reuse through standardized data definition and mechanisms to facilitate sharing of data. MOE also adopted the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) as a design philosophy. The SOA captured the core business functions as services which were reusable. It was an architecture that would seamlessly connect separate technology systems through reusable software components. This would allow different kinds of systems and platforms to communicate with each other in a common language, without custom interfaces. The architecture effectively simplified the changes required to our IT systems when there were policy changes through reuse of the services and reconstruction of these services. For example, the student posting process and the national examinations administration might use the same service (i.e. business function) from the centralized student management system (School Cockpit) to find out whether a student was in School A. When a new type of course was introduced (e.g. gifted programme), the selection of students who are eligible for the new programme could use the same service.

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
The central student administration system (School Cockpit) was fully implemented in 2003 to support the administration of students from Primary level to Pre-University level, and the various e-services were implemented since then. Some of the implemented e-services were the selection of schools by students, the results release of student posting and selection of schools by Singapore citizens who are residing overseas. More e-services (such as application of scholarships) would be implemented by Mar 2009. Other than e-services offered by the Ministry, some of the schools also offered services such as purchase of textbooks and enquiry of school bus services through their individual School Portals. The Ministry had identified several mandatory e-services that all schools must offer to the parents, to allow parents to interact with schools from anywhere anytime. All schools were in the process of implementing these mandatory services through their school portals. By 2008, the students would have a standardized career profiling tool (Education and Career Guidance Portal) to create their personal portfolios that can be used to profile the education and career pathway of students. The system would also provide the students with industry contacts to enable structured visits to the companies. This would give students an insight into the workplace environment and help them to fine-tune their career aspirations. Each student would also have a digital portfolio (Personal Digital Portfolio) that would aggregate student’s credentials and qualifications, and allow students to store examination results for future job application and career planning. The central database (Student Hub) for analysis and to facilitate data exchange was currently being implemented, and would be available by mid 2008. Currently, the IT systems supporting the other student administration business processes were already interfacing with the central student administration system (School Cockpit). When Student Hub was ready, there would be web services to better facilitate the sharing of student data with the multiple systems mentioned. Student placement was one of the critical business processes of MOE. The process would allocate the students to schools based on various criteria and business logic. Examinations was the other important milestone for students. Both processes had undergone process reviews and were undergoing major revamp. The new systems would be available by Year 2009. Students who required financial assistance were provided for with various grants, scholarships and awards. The Ministry has reviewed and redesigned the business processes of providing financial assistance and the new work processes would be supported by IT enabler. The systems were currently put in place and would be available by Year 2008. These systems would interface with the central student management system (School Cockpit) and the central database (Student Hub). While the IT systems for the mainstream schools (i.e. primary level to pre-university level) were implemented, the Pre-School system (Kindergarten-Link) was being implemented. With the availability of a pre-school system, the private pre-school operators would provide the pre-school student information, so that the Ministry would be able to encourage parents to enroll their children for pre-school education. This system would be completed in Year 2008.

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
IT Governance Structure Integrated Student Administration required substantial amount of sharing between various business units. The business users had operated in silos and were responsible only for ensuring their own operations were flawless. In ensuring that there were sharing between business units, the MOE IT Investment Framework defined that all MOE IT projects would be evaluated for alignment to the Ministry’s strategic thrusts, cost and benefits, alignment to MOE Enterprise Architecture and SOA design philosophy. The evaluation was conducted by an independent team comprising the business group responsible for the strategic directions of MOE, the Financial Controller and the Chief Information Office (CIO) representative. If the project did not align to MOE Enterprise Architecture and SOA design philosophy, the project would not be supported and funds would not be provided for the project. All these ensured that there were sharing of data, processes and infrastructure. Data Governance In general, the student information belongs to MOE. However the various aspects of student information were owned by different business process owners. For example, the examination results were owned by examination operations process owners, whereas students’ placement results were owned by the owner of student placement process. Therefore, there was a need to ensure that the various data owners were willing to share and reuse the required data if it was already available. A data governance structure was set up to resolve disagreement and deviations, and to approve policies and procedures related to data management. The authority of data governance was a committee chaired by MOE Senior Management and consists of members from various divisions. The committee was supported by the Enterprise Architecture Programme Management Office and as and when issues were identified, cross-divisional projects teams were formed to further study the issues.

d. What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
This initiative was a framework of approach to ensure that there was integrated student administration for the Ministry. The financial costs to develop the systems and the infrastructure were not directly associated with this initiative. The human resources required to support this initiative was from the existing personnel pool in the IT department and business users.

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
The approach taken by MOE to ensure integration of business processes aligned with the national initiatives for public service, iGov2010. The national initiative aimed to delight customers and connect citizens through the use of infocomm technology. Driven by the vision to be an integrated government, the Singapore Government reworked the back-end processes that cut across agencies to strengthen customer-centricity in service delivery. The backend integration started with integrating of services to address customers’ needs and deliver quality services.

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
Support from Senior Management & Business users Initiative of this nature and complexity required a clear organizational structure and a well defined governance structure. One of the key elements that made the initiative a success is the support from MOE Senior Management. The governance structure provided clarity on lines of authority, responsibility and accountability. These projects also received appropriate attention from MOE Senior Management. Effective IT Governance framework As and when there were new IT systems to be implemented for students related business processes, the Ministry would ensure that there were synergies with the existing systems through the MOE Enterprise Architecture and MOE IT Investment Framework. The MOE IT Investment Framework examined each IT project from its inception to its closure. The framework ensured that new IT systems considered sharing of any available existing IT infrastructure and sharing the use of existing data collected as early as the conceptualization stage. Instead of building additional functions to collect the same data, existing functions could be reused to optimize resources. During the implementation stage of the projects, various committees, with Management’s oversight, convened regularly to review the alignment of the project, the steps taken to mitigate the various risks and the change management strategy. Change management & Communications Most of the business challenges were addressed through good change management strategies and communication. As multiple business users were involved, there was a need to ensure that the key stakeholders are well-informed of the happenings and the implications of each change. It is also important to seek their views and inputs on how the change can be managed to minimize impact on the business. Change management was implemented through various workshops and forums for 26,000 teachers across 360 schools. The following communications channels with schools were established and maintained: • Data and Information Management Workshops for newly appointed school leaders • Data and Information Management Seminars • School Visits • Module Enhancement Trainings • Online Analytic Processing Workshops for Primary School Leaders and Experts • Functionality briefings for the administrators • Just in time briefings before each seasonal activity Through these communication channels, the schools developed capabilities in decision making through data and information management. The business units in MOE also establish contacts and links with the schools and ensured alignment of schools to the business units in MOE. The trainings developed expertise on the functionalities of the various systems. Effective Project Management Process As part of the IT department’s efforts to continually provide high quality IT professional services to ensure customer satisfaction and IT projects were implemented on time and within budget, the department has adopted ISO9001:2000 standards since Year 2002 to ensure processes for effective project management were put in place. The scope of the project management processes included framework and procedures to manage projects, conduct agreement with customers, manage configurations for each project, run the operations, manage the IT resources, manage the subcontractors and define the scope of support.


Institution Name:		Ministry of Education, Singapore
Institution Type:		Government Agency
Contact Person:		Teck Soon Lim
Title:		IT Director
Telephone/ Fax:		(65) 68796373
Institution's / Project's Website:		(65) 67750781
E-mail:		lim_teck_soon@moe.gov.sg
Address:		1 North Buona Vista Drive, MOE Building
Postal Code:		138675
City:		Singapore
State/Province:
Country:		Singapore

The Problem

Solution and Key Benefits

Actors and Stakeholders

(a) Strategies

(b) Implementation

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

(d) Use of Resources

Sustainability and Transferability

Lessons Learned

Contact Information