Open Data from School Inspector (CZ0028)

Opening data – aggregated findings from outcomes of Česká školní inspekce’s [Czech Schools Inspectorate] activities
Start and end date of commitment: 1 September 2018 – 1 August 2019
Lead implementing agency
Česká školní inspekce [Czech Schools Inspectorate]
Which public problem will be resolved by this commitment?
Česká školní inspekce [Czech Schools Inspectorate] holds extensive data sets acquired during comprehensive or thematic inspections primarily concerned with evaluating the quality of education in initial education in CZE. These data sets form the basis of the organisation’s crucial and strategic outputs – annual and thematic reports or other similar documents intended for professionals, education policy- makers and other stakeholders. These outputs can be found here and here, for example.
Although the individual information (more than 10 million individual records in the InspIS information system) relating to the specific topics of schools and school facilities is not public, it is possible to publish electronically selected (regional) aggregated data, which are now part of the above published reports (document format).
The publication of such data in open format enables the wider use thereof by potential consumers, or alternatively also via other electronic applications.
What is the commitment?
The commitment is to publish open data (selected aggregated findings) from the InspIS system (DATA). This will be done with the highest possible efficiency without being a major burden on the staff of Česká školní inspekce.
How will the commitment contribute to solving a public problem?
The proposal is to create an electronic model of existing information held by the InspIS system which will enable automatic publication of selected aggregated findings, in RDF open format (to enable automatic sharing with other information systems) and CSV format (or similar) for less technologically sophisticated access. This will satisfy both the requirements of other information systems operators (or their users) and professionals and the wider general public.
How does the commitment relate to OGP values?
The commitment will significantly improve the accessibility of public information held by service authorities and will expand the information potential of such data, thanks to the option of publishing them and linking to other data in electronic systems. It will strengthen the possibility of professionals or education policy-makers, and also the media, using these data. Given the above, the commitment unequivocally relates to the values of transparency and civil participation.
Further information
The proposal will be implemented as part of the Complex System of Financial Evaluation project within the Operational Programme of Research, Development and Education [OP RDE]. The Czech Schools Inspectorate has already initiated the implementation process.
Milestone activity with verifiable output
Preparation and implementation of a public tender for technical modifications to the InspIS system
Immediately - 15 September 2018
Modifications to the InspIS system
16 September 2018 - 31 December 2018
Pilot operation
01 January 2019 - 31 March 2019
Full operation, publication of data and the entry thereof into the National Catalogue, automation of updates
01 April 2019 - 01 August 2019
Name of the responsible person from the implementing agency
Bc. Kamil Melichárek
Role, Department
Director of the Department of ICT and Economic Reporting
Email and telephone
kamil.melicharek@csicr.cz, +420 251 023 225
Other stakeholders involved
The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports – for the maximum consistency and validity, it is appropriate to publish (in the form of open data) the data from the Registry of Schools and School Facilities held by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (https://rejskol.msmt.cz) with which Česká školní inspekce’s data are linked.
EDUin, o.p.s.

7. Opening data – aggregated findings from outcomes of Czech Schools Inspectorate activities

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

The objective of the commitment is to publish in open data the outcomes of public inspection of schools from the InspIS Portal system and implement regular updates. Czech Schools Inspectorate holds extensive data sets acquired during comprehensive or thematic inspections primarily concerned with evaluating the quality of education in initial education. These data sets form the basis of the organisation’s crucial and strategic outputs – annual and thematic reports or other similar documents are intended for professionals, education policymakers and other stakeholders. Although the individual information (more than 10 million individual records in the InspIS information system) relating to the specific topics of schools and school facilities is not public, it is possible to publish electronically selected (regional) aggregated data, which are now part of the above published reports (document format). The publication of such data in open format enables the wider use thereof by potential consumers, or alternatively also via other electronic applications.

Milestones:

• Preparation and implementation of a public tender for technical modifications to the InspIS system
• Modifications to the InspIS system
• Pilot operation;
• Full operation, publication of data and the entry thereof into the National Open Data Catalogue, automation of updates).

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: 1 August 2019

Context and Objectives

This commitment is to publish in open data formats selected aggregated findings from the Czech Schools Inspectorate (CSI) InspIS system. Currently, the CSI carries out comprehensive evaluations on the operation of nursery, primary, secondary, and vocational schools, as well as on school facilities. The outcomes of these evaluations are then used for inspection reports, thematic reports, and public-legal audit protocols. [12] All these documents are public and accessible on the CSI website. However, the individual evaluation information (more than 10 million individual records in the InspIS system) is not public yet. This commitment aims to make those outputs available in open data to enable a more extensive use by potential consumers and other electronic applications.

The commitment is specific enough to be verified. Similarly to commitments 5 and 6, it entails the implementation of a pilot program, and the implementation of the full operation and it provides a clear timeframe for each milestone. However, it would require more specificity on the proposed modifications to the InspIS system, and a concrete proposal of which data is going to be published first, as well as a detailed schedule of publications during the pilot and implementation phase.

The commitment is relevant to the OGP values of access to information and technology and innovation as it increases the amount of information disclosed and is aligned with international publication standards. As written, the potential impact of the commitment is moderate. According to the government point of contact for OGP, so far, more than 32 million individual indicators were collected in the past 10 years, but they have been released selectively as tables and graphs only. This commitment would change the status quo as it will enable primary data to be released. However, there are still ongoing discussions on which datasets will be published first and how the data will be updated in the system. Moreover, it is not clear how the released data will be used or integrated into other systems.  

Next steps

During the implementation phase, the following suggestions should be considered:

• Effectively target ultimate beneficiaries (school community, journalists, CSOs or enterprises working in the education sector) in the data disclosure prioritization.
• Establish a clear schedule for the disclosure of the data (which dataset and when it will be published)
• Conduct awareness-raising campaigns on the use of the available data.

7. Opening data – aggregated findings from outcomes of Czech Schools Inspectorate activities

Completion: Complete

For details regarding the implementation and early results of this commitment, see section 2.3.