Open Education Data (CZ0026)

Open data on education and the education system
Start and end date of commitment: 1 September 2018 – 31 December 2020
Lead implementing agency
Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports
Which public problem will be resolved by this commitment?
The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports will itself, or via its subordinate organisations, combine data on education and the education system. At the same time, the Ministry will hold several public registers, in particular the core Register of Schools and School Facilities, the Register of Legal Persons and the Register of Universities and Accredited Programmes of Study. These data, which are primarily used to parametrise education policy or finance the entire education system, currently represent a significant information potential for professionals and the wider public. Although the data in aggregated form are largely publicly accessible, or rather provided in individual form by the minister on public request, they are not, with exceptions, published as open data, which frequently causes a great administrative burden both to the applicant and to the data administrator (provider).
What is the commitment?
The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports is implementing the MEYS Departmental Information System Project (MEYS DIS), where one of the key objectives is to ensure the publication of public data in accordance with the OpenData principle. This primarily concerns data on schools and school facilities held in the Schools Register/ Register of Universities, but also data describing their predominantly quantitative attributes – current numbers of schools / school facilities, their workers – i.e., both teaching and non-teaching staff, children / pupils / students, classes / departments / groups, equipment etc. Other departmental organisations under the direct aegis of the Ministry that hold data more qualitative in nature are also involved in the MEYS DIS concept. The commitment is therefore to ensure this publication and to automate the activities which will continuously update the open data.
How will the commitment contribute to solving a public problem?
The publication of public data in open format will enable the easier and administratively undemanding (and therefore much wider) use not just by the citizen-end user, but also, for example, by institutions engaging in education science and research or the media.
How does the commitment relate to OGP values?
The commitment will ensure access to public information combined by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, or, as the case may be, its selected subordinate organisations, which will significantly contribute to the use of these data by professionals and the wider public, as a result improving the quality of published information, supporting civil participation and last but not least, boosting the transparency of public (state) administration.
Further information
The commitment will be met symbiotically, by implementing the MEYS Departmental Information System Project, which is co-financed under IROP (project registration number CZ.06.3.05/0.0/0.0/16_034/0005821).
Milestone activity with verifiable output
Presenting the data in the existing Register of Schools and School Facilities in the form of open data, including the insertion thereof in the National Catalogue of Open Data
(interim solution by the MEYS DIS full operation launch)
01 September 2018 - 01 January 2019
Launch of a public tender for suppliers for MEYS DIS
Implementation of MEYS DIS
MEYS DIS pilot operation
01 March 2021 - 31 July 2021
MEYS DIS full operation (comprising the automated publication of open data in an open format and the insertion thereof into the National Catalogue of Open Data)
01 October 2021 - 31 December 2021
Name of the responsible person from the implementing agency
Václav Jelen
Role, Department
Director of the Department of Educational Statistics, Analysis and Information Strategy
Email and telephone
vaclav.jelen@msmt.cz, +420 234 815 242
Other stakeholders involved
Česká školní inspekce [Czech Schools Inspectorate]
Centrum pro zjišťování výsledků vzdělávání [Centre for Evaluating Educational Achievement] (CERMAT)
Národní ústav pro vzdělávání [National Institute for Education]
EDUin o.p.s., Aliance pro Otevřené vzdělávání [Alliance for Open Education]

5. Open data on education and the education system

Language of the commitment as it appears in the action plan:

The objective of the commitment is to ensure publication of public data in open format and to automate the activities which will continuously update the open data. The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports is implementing the MEYS Departmental Information System Project (MEYS DIS), where one of the key objectives is to ensure the publication of public data in accordance with the Open Data principle. This primarily concerns data on schools and school facilities held in the Schools Register/ Register of Universities, but also data describing their predominantly quantitative attributes – current numbers of schools / school facilities, their workers – i.e., both teaching and non-teaching staff, children / pupils / students, classes / departments / groups, equipment etc. Other departmental organisations under the direct aegis of the Ministry that hold data more qualitative in nature are also involved in the MEYS DIS concept.

Milestones:

• Presenting the data in the existing Register of Schools and School Facilities in the form of open data, including the insertion thereof in the National Catalogue of Open Data (interim solution by the MEYS DIS full operation launch);
• Launch of a public tender for suppliers for MEYS DIS;
• Implementation of MEYS DIS;
• MEYS DIS pilot operation;
• MEYS DIS full operation (comprising the automated publication of open data in an open format and the insertion thereof into the National Catalogue of Open Data)

For full text of the commitment please see: https://korupce.cz/partnerstvi-pro-otevrene-vladnuti-ogp/narodni-akcni-plany-nap/ctvrty-akcni-plan-2018-2020/faze-vytvoreni/

Start Date: 1 September 2018              

End Date: 31 December 2020

Context and Objectives

According to the Open Data Barometer (2016), the Czech Republic scored 44 out of 100 in an overall assessment of open data initiatives, falling five points compared to previous years. Moreover, the country scored very low with respect to primary and secondary education performance data with 15 out of 100 points for 2016. [9] This commitment aims to ensure the publication of open data on education (schools, school facilities, staff, and equipment, among others) in accordance with international open data standards. The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports will be in charge of launching a public tender for suppliers and implementing the pilot operation, which will include the publication of the data in the existing Register of Schools and School Facilities and the National Catalogue of Open Data.

This commitment is specific enough to be verifiable, as it provides four clear implementation milestones: It is relevant to the OGP values of access to information and technology and innovation as it improves the quality of the information disclosed in an online platform and promotes the update and disclosure of new data under the direct aegis of the Ministry.

Since December 2018, the data has been available in the Schools Public Register (https://data.msmt.cz/). However, the data is mainly used internally by the public administration and is not available in an open format. The commitment could, therefore, have a positive but minor impact, as it would allow wider public access to the currently available data and would change the publication form to comply with international standards. Moreover, the commitment aims to continue updating the information, which if implemented as written, could result in an improvement of the quality of the data.

Next steps

During implementation the following suggestions could be considered:

• Establish a clear timeline for the update of the data (weekly, monthly, etc.)
• Involve ultimate beneficiaries of the commitment (school community, journalists, CSOs working in the education sector) in the prioritization of the data to be disclosed.
• Preview an IT add-on that allows citizens to give feedback or introduce inquiries on the data disclosed.

[9] Open Data Barometer, Czech Republic, http://devodb.staging.wpengine.com/country-detail/?_year=2016&indicator=ODB&detail=CZE

5. Open data on education and the education system

Completion: Limited

The National Catalogue of Open Data includes the Register of Schools and School Facilities for national and regional levels, in open data (XML format) since January 2019 (see Commitment 6, below). [9] However, implementation of the MEYS DIS system—including tendering, implementation, piloting, and launching the system—was not complete by the end of the implementation period. The government acknowledged that next time, commitments need to factor in lengthy timeframes for public procurement. [10]

According to the Ministry of Education, the temporary closure of schools and school facilities due to the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the tender process for the MEYS DIS system as the potential supplier could not have been expected to complete the activities in the original timeframe. [11] The timeline for the full operation of MEYS DIS has been extended to March 2023. [12]