The Institute of Early Childhood Development (IECD) in partnership with other Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Sectors including Health, Social Services, Education and Community Development and Sports, joined together at Avani Barbarons Hotel in a half-day workshop on Friday 30th September, 2016, to discuss the collection and management of data in early childhood care and education. In her opening address, the Minister for Education; Mrs. MacSuzy Mondon, emphasized the need for accessible data that is – reliable in order to facilitate effective planning, strategic action and decision-making. The Chief Executive Officer of IECD, Mrs. Shirley Choppy further elaborated on the need to strengthen data management in ECCE. She further highlighted the project which emanated from the World Bank’s Systems Approach for Better Education Results – Early Childhood Development (SABER-ECD) Country Report for Seychelles, 2013. This rated Seychelles was as “Established” for all – policies that govern ECCE, except for data availability which was rated as “Emerging”, indicating the need to reinforce the ease of data collection and use by the various Sectors. The data management project with financial assistance from the World Bank, will start with Ministry of Health and is expected to progress to the other Sectors. During the month of September a situation analysis was conducted by Ms. Lindsay Adams, an expert on Data Management from the World Bank. She presented the preliminary findings as well as examples of early childhood development indicators and how these can be collected. Ms. Adams is expected to return to Seychelles to continue her work on the project. This includes training for professionals on data management as well as the development of an indicator framework. This will be based on key early childhood development, internationally recognized indicators and a procurement manual to guide data collection and its management.
