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NOOR
Education Management System "NOOR"

A. Problem Analysis

 1. What was the problem before the implementation of the initiative?
With over 6 million students, 33,000 schools, 600,000 teachers, 48 School Directorates, and over 300 million annual records, the Ministry of Education was challenged with access to real-time data and records that would facilitate accurate analysis and reporting and impact public education development across the Kingdom. Although data was available to a certain extent, but some key challenges existed, such as: Data redundancy, High probability of human error, Inability to develop up to moment reports and analysis based on live data, Need for timely feedback and results, and Limited data integration and workflow between the Ministry and its various related departments, school districts, schools, and other stakeholders. Over the past years, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been undergoing various activities related to its national public education reform plans. One of the most significant aspects of such reform is the ability to make better informed decisions, and to be able to base such decisions and design reform plans and policies based on statistics, intelligence, and real live data provided from all schools and users all over the country. The ministry also could not accurately provide its various beneficiaries including students, parents, teachers, administrators, planners and policy makers, etc. across the Kingdom with access to education related data and e-services relevant to their needs. Based on the above, the need for a centralized database and a strategic project and initiative to better service the complete education community was raised. Accordingly, the Education Management Information Solution (EMIS) initiative was created by the Ministry of Education (MoE). The initiative was later named “Noor” which is an Arabic word that means “Illumination”.

B. Strategic Approach

 2. What was the solution?
The solution aims: 1. To connect the Ministry of Education and all schools and school districts in the various areas and regions within the Kingdom to a centralized information system and data base. 2. To implement a solution based on the latest technologies, and solution provides a magnitude of features and e-services, including around 2,700 functionalities designed to serve the various stakeholders including students, teachers, parents, as well as school / districts / and Ministry level administrators and decision makers. 3. To aggregate all data from the various sources, and provides real time accurate and comprehensive data and reports that serve the complete education community and facilitates planning, analysis and decision support across the country.
 3. How did the initiative solve the problem and improve people’s lives?
The solution aims: 1. To connect the Ministry of Education and all schools and school districts in the various areas and regions within the Kingdom to a centralized information system and data base. 2. To implement a solution based on the latest technologies, and solution provides a magnitude of features and e-services, including around 2,700 functionalities designed to serve the various stakeholders including students, teachers, parents, as well as school / districts / and Ministry level administrators and decision makers. 3. To aggregate all data from the various sources, and provides real time accurate and comprehensive data and reports that serve the complete education community and facilitates planning, analysis and decision support across the country. How did the initiative solve the problem and improve people’s lives? 3 Number of Beneficiaries from this initiative reaches around 10 million including 6 million students in over 33,000 schools in addition to their parents, teachers, and school and ministry administrators and staff, analysts, planners and policy makers. In addition, the initiative involves other entities outside the Ministry of Education realm, including, the e-Government Program Yesser, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Higher Education, colleges and universities to facilitate students admission and registration procedures, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Labor, among others. The following are some of the key benefits served by the initiative: • Increased efficiency and effectiveness in the public education sector. • Increased transparency and accountability. • Improved quality of data, due to elimination of data redundancy and reduced human error. • Streamlined workflow between Ministry and the various related departments, school districts, schools, in addition to stakeholders and entities outside the realm of MoE. • Improved public services thus achieving higher citizen satisfaction. • 20 e-services are provided through this initiative to end users including Ministry, districts, schools, parents, students, public entities, Saudi universities and colleges, recruitment companies, among others. • Ability to achieve better informed decisions and develop plans and policies based on proper and comprehensive live data and statistics. • Provision of real live educational data to the education community as needed, along with timely feedback, reports and results. • Reduction of operational costs due to the high level of automation, and due to the centralized deployment of the solution (further elaboration under the impacts below). The objectives of this initiative are: The provision of a national education solution that can provide real live countrywide data for use in planning, policy making, and decision support. And the other objective is To provide the various stakeholders in the education committee including students, parents, teachers, administrators, planners and policy makers, etc. across the Kingdom with information and education services relevant to their needs. Thus the Ministry of Education initiated this initiative for the provision of a national centralized Education Management Information Solution that can help the Ministry achieve its strategic objectives in the most effective manner. As part of the project, a main operations center was created, through which the key ministry administrators responsible for this project can monitor the operations and ensure that all aspects are sustained and under control.

C. Execution and Implementation

 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
A solution needed to be developed which incorporated which would not only overcome the complicated problems outlined above, but would provide business intelligence on ways to prevent barriers to equal education through diversity in classrooms, recognize any possible biases in decision-making and effectively enable fair and improved quality for students, parents and administrators. The following are some of the key benefits • Forward looking predictive intelligence to off-set cultural and personal biases • Ensure inclusion, transparency, and accountability; • 20 e-services including Ministry, districts, schools, parents, students, public entities, Saudi universities and colleges, recruitment companies, and many others; • 100% increase in efficiency; • Improved quality of data due to elimination of data redundancy and reduced human error; • Streamlined workflow between Ministry departments, school districts, schools, stakeholders and entities outside the realm of MoE; • Improved public services achieving higher stakeholder satisfaction • Ability to make better informed decisions and develop plans and policies based on proper, comprehensive, live data and statistics; • Provision of real time educational data to the educational community as needed, along with timely feedback, reports and results; • 50% reduction of operational costs
 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
The initiative is a result of collaborative efforts between several entities within the public and private sectors. The initiative was proposed and initiated by the Ministry of Education, and is managed by it as well. Consulting services were provided by a team of academics experts from the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Information & Computer Science Department to perform analysis and needs assessment. The project is implemented by a private IT firm Integrated Technology Group who also provided the solution design. And the overall program management is provided by another private firm, Deloitte. Furthermore, Over 10 million users effected by the initiative including 6 million students, 3 million parents, 600,000 Teachers, 400,000 supervisors & administrative.
 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
Key implementation steps include the following: 1. Idea developed based on identified need. 2. Needs assessment report developed. 3. Search initiated for implementing firms through public tender. 4. Firm selected to implement, project implementation initiated. 5. Project implementation in 5 phases. 6. Awareness, training and knowledge transfer conducted in parallel with project implementation. 7. Completion of Implementation. 8. Operations and support. The main resources used for this initiative was training the concerned stakeholders. Then development process was started by the IT department and was followed by the role of supervision by the concerns departments (business owners). Of course the IT department provided and maintained support by producing additional visual products to demonstrate the ease of use of the system
 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
The initiative is a result of collaborative efforts between several entities within the public and private sectors. The initiative was proposed and initiated by the Ministry of Education, and is managed by it as well. Consulting services were provided by a team of academics experts from the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Information & Computer Science Department to perform analysis and needs assessment. The project is implemented by a private IT firm Integrated Technology Group who also provided the solution design. And the overall program management is provided by another private firm, Deloitte. The initiative is overseen by a steering committee and a supervising committee formed of representatives from the various Ministry departments and related entities. Furthermore, as this is considered one of the most significant national education initiatives in the Kingdom, the Ministry decided to involve more of the public in the selection of a name and logo for the initiative. Thus, this selection was conducted through nomination and voting through the Ministry’s website. Thus, the name “Noor” won the vote
 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
The most successful output is the full automation of all systems and procedures and the application of standard procedures as well as time saving & Improved performance and increased productivity due to full automation of procedures and improved work distribution among staff, which in turn improves overall productivity and efficiency.
 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
The main obstacle faced is ensuring the consistent and continuous population of the system, which is key to its success. This requires commitment from the various stakeholders especially the teachers and administrators responsible for the population and operation of the system. As the norm in such national large scale projects, there were certain challenges. However through continuous monitoring and follow-up by the management and operations team at the Ministry through the state-of-the-art operations center that was especially created for this purpose, and through scheduled awareness and training sessions conducted to bring the stakeholders up to speed and get their buy-in, and overall average of 98.5% participation from the fields has been achieved which is considered a high success rate.

D. Impact and Sustainability

 10. What were the key benefits resulting from this initiative?
List of e-Services rendered by Noor System are as follows, but not limited to: Student e-Services: 1. Students Registration and Admission 2. Displaying daily schedule 3. Follow-up grades and assignments (H.W) 4. Viewing the time-table of tests 5. Follow-up bus schedules 6. Showing Library Books Teacher e-Services: 1. Showing daily schedule 2. Displaying a list of the class students 3. Follow-up and entering students’ assignments 4. Follow-up and entering students' grades 5. Follow-up attendance and absence 6. Raise the request to transfer to another school 7. Raise suggestions and observations to supervisors electronically 8. Receiving circulars and notes Parents/Guardian e-Services 1. Filing the registration application and transport 2. Follow-up attendance 3. View the time-table of tests 4. Follow-up grades and assignments 5. Follow-up attendance and absence 6. Follow-up suspensions and commitments, cautions, and notes on the student 7. Communicating with the teacher and the student advisor 8. Updating contact details School Management e-Services: 1. Preparation course schedule and modify it 2. Follow-up needs of the school 3. Raise and follow up maintenance requests 4. Follow up the issues of students 5. Follow-up school cafeteria 6. Follow-up school library 7. Analytical reports on the status of school Guidance and Direction e-Services: 1. Follow-up reports of guidance 2. Notes on the development of the student or teacher 3. Follow-up complaints of guidance 4. Showing plan of guidance and counselling Educational Supervision e-Services: 1. Template of the teacher performance 2. Supervisor plan to visit schools 3. Showing penalties given to teachers 4. Educational entry requirements for teacher 5. Adding to draw attention 6. Adding a referral request to investigate with teacher 7. Observations provide to teachers and educational guidance Educational Directorates of Region e-Services: 1. Providing accurate statistics on the results, students, teachers, and schools needs 2. Follow-up of educational supervision 3. Follow-up counselling students 4. Follow up on teachers and student affairs 5. Follow-up of school transport Ministry of Education e-Services 1. Analytical reports and performance indicators at all levels 2. Updating the basic data for schools and departments of education 3. Providing data to external bodies 4. Providing a unified channel for Circulars and decisions
 11. Did the initiative improve integrity and/or accountability in public service? (If applicable)
Some of key benefits served by the initiative is to increase transparency and accountability as well as improve the quality of data, due to elimination of data redundancy and reduced human error. And the other objective is To provide the various stakeholders in the education committee including students, parents, teachers, administrators, planners and policy makers, etc. across the Kingdom with information and education services relevant to their needs.
 12. Were special measures put in place to ensure that the initiative benefits women and girls and improves the situation of the poorest and most vulnerable? (If applicable)
The initiative accomplished by improving business methods and providing high quality and effective electronic services for citizens, residents (regardless male, female, poor, and rich), also it create the transparency, unification of rules, and overall equality among all users in the various areas and regions.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   Education Management System "NOOR"
Institution Type:   Ministry  
Contact Person:   Dr. Ali Sabty
Title:   Studies and Strategic Partnership  
Telephone/ Fax:   00966-114753229
Institution's / Project's Website:  
E-mail:   asabty@moe.gov.sa  
Address:   king Abdullah Road
Postal Code:   11148
City:   Riyadh
State/Province:   Central Province
Country:  

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