CHENNAI: The School Education Department plans to streamline the Education Management Information System (EMIS) from March by significantly reducing the data teachers are required to collect and feed into the system.
This move aims to ease the workload of teachers, who have long complained that EMIS-related tasks consume substantial time and affect their teaching. However, concerns remain that the changes could hinder the effective tracking of students’ education and the implementation of various schemes.
Samagra Shiksha, which provides technological support for EMIS, has issued a circular to school education directors, instructing them to prepare schools for the proposed changes. Following a review by the school education secretary on December 6, a committee was established to evaluate EMIS processes and recommend ways to reduce teachers’ administrative burden.
The circular states that several data collection modules have been simplified or removed. These include financial details, donor registers, scholarships, welfare schemes, teacher timetables, formative and summative assessments, and health screening questionnaires. However, it remains unclear whether these modules will be modified or eliminated entirely.
An official explained that the final decision on retaining or modifying modules would depend on their relevance, with detailed instructions to follow.
A government school headmaster welcomed the initiative, highlighting that even large schools with over 1,000 students have only one instructor-cum-administrator, leaving much of the workload to teachers. While supporting the reduction in redundancy, the headmaster emphasised that essential data modules must be retained for effective school management and student welfare.