DepEd Enhanced Learner Information System (ELIS)

Attached is an Aide Memoire from DepEd Undersecretary Alain Del B. Pascua on the DepEd Enhanced Learner Information System (ELIS).

Background and Overview of the Envisioned LIS

The envisioned DepEd Enhanced Learner Information System (ELIS) is fundamentally an adaptation of the Department of Education’s mission to protect and promote the right of every Filipino to quality, equitable, culture-based, and complete basic education, where:

• Students learn in a child-friendly, gender-sensitive, safe, and motivating environment.
• Teachers facilitate learning and constantly nurture every learner.
• Administrators and staff, as stewards of the institution, ensure an enabling and supportive environment for effective learning to happen.
• Family, community, and other stakeholders are actively engaged and share responsibility for developing life-long learners.

It is an operational tool to assist and effectively uphold the Department’s mission and consequently relieving the teachers from a lot of administrative tasks. As a result, teachers can focus on improving the learning experience of their students.

Apart from the current purpose of the existing LIS which will be carried on, the envisioned Enhanced LIS will likewise be used to collect and store information in order to institutionalize and standardize students’ records; securely, accurately and safely gather/input; and process, historically organizes, consolidate, and manage this information to be able to holistically perform the Department’s mandate and be true to its mission. Additionally, it will be used to issue the permanent records of learners so that these records will be safeguarded from being destroyed by disasters and learners will no longer need to physically go back to t school to obtain a copy of their records.

Implementing the DepEd Enhanced Learner Information System addresses multi-faceted challenges that are prevalent, compatible, and critically relevant to other systems and needs. However, the intent gleans from the obvious concerns that compel to bring this enhanced LIS vision to fruition:

1. Data Integrity – refers to the data security, maintenance, and accuracy of the data/information being collected over time which can be achieved through a well-thought design and architecture for storage, processing, and retrieval.
2. Data Privacy – the proper handling of personal data throughout its lifecycle consistent with the obligations under the Data Privacy Act of 2012 (RA 10173), its IRR and National Privacy Commission’s Circulars and Advisories.
3. Data Empowerment – refers to the potential and promise to ensure that time, people, and resources are utilized to produce optimal effects with the proper data collection and appropriate systems in place. Moving ahead with systems that will extrapolate information and present data to provide meaningful analytics will be futile if a robust and scalable learner’s / students information system is not in place.

Project Description and Objectives

The envisioned DepEd Enhanced LIS is a secure student record data management platform wherein information can be retrievable, manageable, and sharable to be able to affect processes such as enrollment, transfers, and movement in a timely manner. Such processes are monitored to ensure that the workflow is followed through. It is interoperable with other systems provided these systems are also secure, safe, and are open to integration.

The DepEd Enhanced LIS will be a feature-rich application portal with unlimited users that addresses student records management, is data privacy-compliant, and has the ability to manage voluminous, immutable yet dynamic student records.

Objectives of the DepEd Enhanced LIS

The goal and primary objective are to promote an end-to-end, secure, privacy-compliant implementation of the DepEd Enhanced Learner Information System and discontinue the use of disparate and/or isolated ways/systems with inaccurate data, that are incapable of seamless integration and secure data exchange leading to waste and inefficiency.

The DepEd Enhanced LIS shall allow:

1. A historical yet dynamic view of a learner’s/student’s record (even if the student transfers from one school to another) through a unique student number or the Learner Reference Number (LRN) assigned and other data attributes that are uniquely identifiable to a particular learner.
2. Teachers to input and conveniently maintain their class student records, evaluate and upload grades; and principals/registrars to easily share and retrieve other student records whenever necessary.
3. IT Administrators of other systems like the DERPS and Business Analytics will have the capability to integrate via API’s (and other protocols, web services) without sacrificing data integrity.
4. DepEd Management to draw out meaningful and timely reports enabling the Department to achieve more data-driven programs and results for the learners.
5. Release of permanent records through the platform negating the need for learners to physically go to the school and protecting these records from being destroyed by disasters.

The envisioned DepEd Enhanced Learner Information System shall have features that will promote data integrity, data privacy, and data empowerment as its tenets.

DepEd ELIS Features

The envisioned DepEd Enhanced LIS shall integrate into existing systems for data migration, single sign-on, and reportorial needs.

It will be a single system that supports a multi-school environment and ecosystem. Further, it could be a standalone application wherein school officials are able to manage the application as well.

This envisioned DepEd ELIS portal will no longer be a monolithic application wherein school reports will still be uploaded by the teachers and/or school administrators themselves. Rather, school reports and school forms are automatically generated for as long as data input is complete and submitted on time. Teachers do not need to encode a single piece of information multiple times for accurate and coherent data management.

Also, the following are expected:

1. School Year Setup
2. Subjects Management
3. Class and Section Management

a. Adding Students to Sections or Class
b. Support for multiple sections per student

4. Grading System / Transmutation Table

a. Support for multiple grading systems
b. Grades List
c. Encoding of Grades
d. Grades Upload
e. Conditional Grades
f. Change Grades

5. Student Profile

a. Profile (socio-demographic, basic health information profile) i. Report card, Permanent Records

6. Enrollment History

a. Current Enrollment
b. Past Enrollment

7. Transfer Management

a. Transfer in/out; Move-in/out

8. Support for “back subjects” or retakes
9. Faculty Profile and Teaching Load
10. Learner Reports Generations

The envisioned DepEd ELIS among others emphasizes the urgency of the Records Management of students where it is visualized empowering students and parents with their student records anytime, anywhere. No more traveling back from one province to another to be able to retrieve a physical record for a student to transfer to another school. This also resolves the concern of physical or hard copies of student records being damaged by floods and other calamities/disasters.

Like the DepEd Commons, the DepEd Enhanced LIS is envisioned to be a living portal providing ease of access where information is needed and relieving teachers of repetitive administrative tasks and reports generation. Therefore, it must embody the basic elements and profound effects of the following principles:

• Ease of Use
• Secure and scalable
• Continuous Development/ Improvement

Sustainably, it will serve as an operational and digital tool to improve processes involved in the registration, enrollment, and student records management and as an offshoot to craft strategies to hone the upgrade of competencies of the students.

Further, the data collected will be drawn to build analytics, monitoring of processes, the progress of students and teachers, and other information along the way.