Knowing our Learners

Knowing our Learners (Day 23) [sic]

by Rey Laguda

(This is the  25th day of 50-day journey of DepEd Undersecretary Rey Laguda as being serialized here with his permission, culled from his Facebook account - Blogger/owner)

The Learner Information System (LIS) is intended to be a registry of all formal and non-formal learners in basic education. It contains basic information but also where or what program they are enrolled in for a given school year. The objectives of this registry are to know who our learners are, where they are, who fall in and out of the system so that we can properly be guided in crafting of policies and programs to achieve our education outcomes of providing quality education for all.

How to Unenroll a Learner

Error is unavoidable either it could be a human factor or system error since we are talking here of Learner information System (LIS) enrollment in a LIS Website.

There are instances, therefore, that the teacher has erroneously enrolled his learner due to some reasons. So he has to rectify his enrollment data or shall we say he has to unenroll that learner who has been encoded wrongfully from his class by using School Head's account. In so doing then he could come up with valid and reliable data of enrollment and has to do it too in LIS website.

To facilitate this unenrollment of a learner, I have formulated six steps tutorial for the teachers to follow and be able to straighten their erroneous enrollment entry of their pupil by using the unenroll facility of LIS thru the account of his School Head.

Note: Only in School Head's account, the Unenroll Facility is available.

These steps are self-explanatory and they're easy to follow. Take your time teachers.

How to Update EOSY Learner's Data

After doing some housekeeping on learner's data like some correction on your name, birthdate; correction of LRN and even deactivation of your LRN due to its multiplicity, teachers may not proceed to updating their learner's data for the end of the school year (EOSY).

Those activities are usual job for a public school teachers, even it is even facilitated by their school ICT coordinator and duly approved by the school head. On the case of multiple LRN deactivation, the central office has to approve and effect the needed deactivation. And these things fall in the beginning of school year (BOSY).

And in return, these will be finally reflected to their respective school data in Enhanced Basic Education Information System (EBEIS).

DepEd ICT : 'Keeping Learners' Interest in Mind, at Heart'

April 2015 marks the first year anniversary of DepEd ICT Coordinators Group in the Facebook in which this blogger and a school head of Balabag Elem. School created that said group to serve as a "venue for ICT coordinators, classroom teachers of the DepEd for coordination, instructions, and sharing of best practices related to Learner Information System (LIS) and Enhanced Basic Education Information System (EBEIS), among others."

Asec Rey Laguda

As this group celebrates its anniversary, DepEd assistant secretary Rey Laguda has issued a statement to this effect that says -

"Gil, congratulations on your first year anniversary of your blog (group). I find it really inspiring and encouraging when our people find ways to innovate and come up with solutions to the myriad of problems that we face. Instead of waiting for the answers to come to you, you seek it and even share it with others.

"May your blog (group) continue to serve as an effective to not only for disseminating information but in engaging our people to seek information, analyze with discernment, and decide with prudence and reason.

"we always be inspired to find opportunities to build our nation by keeping our learners' interest in mind and at heart."

How to Readmit Learner No Longer in School

The school is always getting the difficulty to get track of their learners due to irregular attendance or even to the extend of non attendance at all. Learn Information System (LIS) site has a No Longer in School (NLS) facility to take care of those learners.

NLS Button

NLS is a facility in LIS to handle the following situation of the pupils/learners:

1. Transfer of school to other public school or private, going abroad with their parents (transfer in residence)
2. Dropping out due health reasons, truancy, and the like
3. Death
4. Unintentionally moving as NLS by teacher-adviser

However, there are instances that those who were no longer in school have returned to school. And the school has to reenroll or readmit them. Now using the LIS facility, what should the teacher should do?

How to Search DepEd ICT Coordinators Page Effectively

It is our purpose to make things in order for we are the DepEd ICT Coordinators, teachers, school heads and we are a part and parcel of LIS work as a responsible, resourceful and reliable referenced persons in authority on the task we are committed to do.

DepEd ICT Coordinators Page Banner

In discharging this kind of job we have had we are no perfect person. We need basic pieces of information to keep ourselves going especially in straightening learner basic data. We want to make it reliable, authentic and accurate. Since we are not perfect we want to complete it. Thus we do some search/query/asking question to give us of what you want and again to satisfy our insufficiency of knowledge or pieces of information we need.

By merely posting a question to the group couldn't guarantee that it could be answered. It may take time to be replied by the admin or any member who is online. Or it may never be answered at all.

LIS Change Request Facility Made Easy

Recently the Learner Information System (LIS) has introduced a Change Request Facility to work on various corrections to the basic learner's profile like his name, age, learner reference number (LRN), among others. With this application everything would be straighten and made accurate especially the learner's school profile records.

To make this corrections request facility, valid, authentic and reliable, it requires two key persons to handle this thing. One is the class adviser who makes a request for correction of learner's profile and the other one is the school head who approves or disapproves the change of requests.

Teacher especially class adviser may find this tutorial very useful and helpful. This correction request facility may rectify erroneous entries on the learner's enrollment profile made by lack of orientation, lack of time, or shall we say miscommunication.

Likewise, the school head may find this tutorial easy for him to approve the request made. In short, this facility is involving two responsible persons in the school for the genuineness, authenticity of the learner's vital records in school.

How To Solve LIS Data Issues Easily

The learners Information System (LIS) since its inception or official implementation in 2011, had various concern or issues which need to be addressed appropriately and effectively to have an accurate pupil's profile like his name, Learner Reference Number (LRN), birthdate, date of school entrance, among others.

The technical team of LIS has come up the following easy or do-it-yourself solution to the common problems which the teacher encountered in the opening, during and even the closing of classes.

Aside from the LIS Help Desk in the Facebook which handles queries, problems arising from fundamental issue on the learner's basic profile. Thought the said problems mentioned are given solutions but yet they keep on recurring for the teachers concerned, ICT coordinators and even the school heads aren't well-versed on how to do them effectively.

DepEd LIS/EBEIS Concerns, Issues: Where to Go?

Since the computerization of Learner Information System (LIS) as well as the Enhanced Basic Education Information System (EBEIS), school Information and Communications Technology (ICT) coordinators, school heads, and especially school guidance coordinators and classroom teachers are on the verge of baptism of fire exploring the cybespace and online school-related job.

With the intention of resolving the technical issues those DepEd non-teaching and teaching personnel may encounter while doing their encoding job for the the first time in the history of Department of Education, group like Learner Information System (LIS) Help Desk, School Forms Reengineering  Team (SFRT), and EBEIS Help Desk was created in the Facebook with only a handful of admins who did sacrifice their time and effort to properly discharge their responsibilities.

The mentioned FB group was only limited to DepEd non-teaching, teaching, and administrative/supervisory personnel.

How to Solve LIS/EBEIS Issues Orderly

Sir Jonathan Diche, a moderator and a mainstay of Learner Information System/Enhanced Basic Education Information System (LIS/EBEIS) Help Desk in Facebook has made it clear on how  to remedy issues in LIS and EBEIS as a negative reactions of teachers and ICT school coordinators who are too critical, pessimistic on the system due to some glitches and imperfection so to speak.

Diche

The technical team of LIS/EBEIS is never giving a chance for the system to be failed. Perfection isn't attained overnight especially this online data gathering, collection, processing and validating is in its infant stage. Everyone in the DepEd should give the system a chance to achieve her purpose.

Anyway, Sir Diche said there are two sets of data in LIS and it is important to determine which data set the teachers are referring to.

The First Set of Data

The 1st set is the beginning of school year (BoSY) enrollment reflecting enrollment from June 2 to June 6. Current data issues being addressed by LIS is a part of data housekeeping. For schools that have instances of duplicate LRNs and invalid date of birth, the names of learners whose data need to be corrected are listed in the school LIS dashboard.

ONE DEPED - LIS Encoding Organized

To address the voluminous problems encountered by the teachers who are enrolling their pupils to the online facility of the DepEd, the so-called Learner Information System (LIS), DepEd assistant secretary Reynaldo Laguda, after meeting with the LIS technical team issued a memorandum directing every teacher, school head, ICT coordinator on the schedule of encoding.

Asst, Sec. Laguda

Teachers not only teaching in the morning but they are also doing a nocturnal job like enrolling their pupils to the site provided by the DepEd. Since this online enrollment system is new, everybody seems to be excited and most don't have any experienced at all on how to encode their pupils' data.

The system is unstable sometimes, falters due to heavy traffic of users, due to preventive maintenance, upgrading of the system, among others. It is intermittently disconnected. The teachers have to wait for several hours and even a day, and until they become impatient. The helpdesk which is created to handle LIS  related problems tends to pile up with unsavory comments, insults and curses out of the blue from the inhumane, inconsiderate teachers who didn't know the job of the members of LIS team. It is good they're not moved a bit, though they're, of course, hurt.

This situation is not remote to assistant secretary Laguda. He tactfully has responded and this is what happened. Earlier, however, he posted a message to the LIS facebook account, which reads:

How To Print Masterlist of Learner in LIS

The encoding and enrolling of learner to his respective school through an online site created for this purpose, the Learner Information System have been done by all the public schools, both in elementary and secondary in the Department of Education here in our country PH.

Though some online users found it taxing on their part for some internet glitches which couldn't be remedied immediately. Some have to work it until the following morning just to beat the deadline.

Actually what can you expect from those novice, neophytes as far as cyber job is concerned? Imperfection. Trial and error. Trivial queries or a mere or utter curse of the system which they admit is very new to them. Anyway, what else can we do? Charge it to experience.

It is done!

What about the masterlist?  They want a copy of it but the system doesn't provide the facility or function to furnish them a copy. It is not a problem anyway.

How To Download School Forms from LIS Simply

Teachers who are encoding their latest enrollment to Learner Information System (LIS) are commonly confronted with difficulty to download a copy of their SF1 () and SF5 due to heavy traffic of teacher-users, weak internet connection or access.

Norelyn

Nevertheless, those forms would be downloaded in due time but you take quite sometime to wait. Anyway, once you download the forms you wanted to have, you will be prompted that "School form has been queued for processing and will be available for download shortly."

"100% Effective... the direction is easy to follow... informative... and user-friendly," told Ms. Norelyn Subion Togueno, a grade one teacher of Sagpangan Elementary School, Division of Palawan after reading and following the steps in this blog.

Mam Norelyn has been a week of working on learner information system of 3 schools which she worked on and found it difficult to download the needed school forms for submission to their district, not counting the inefficient internet connection in their area.