Digitizing Enrollment with Equitable Access to Education: The Ogun State Approach with the Digital Platform for Education Revitalization (DiPER)

 

Imagine a future where every child, regardless of their background, has equal access to quality education. In Ogun State, this vision is becoming a reality by deploying the Digital Platform for Education Revitalization (DiPER) to drive the Ogun State Education Revitalization Agenda (OGSERA) under the Prince Dapo Abiodun administration. To make education more equitable and efficient, the DiPER has transformed the educational landscape, providing new hope for students, parents, and educators. By leveraging the power of digital innovation, Ogun State is setting a new standard and template for public education management that other states in the country can model for adoption.

The main goal of public education is to provide equal access and ensure fairness in the enrollment process for the public school system. In Ogun State, 42 flagship schools were established in each local government area to promote excellence among students. Before the introduction of the DiPER, the enrollment process for these schools was difficult and discouraging. Each year, prospective students and parents had to endure long lines at the Zonal Education Offices to obtain application forms for the flagship schools. Getting a spot in these schools often involved dealing with gatekeepers who controlled access to application forms and opportunities for admission.

The enrollment into the flagship schools was almost losing its value as a place for merit and brilliant students. It was fast becoming a situation of “who you know” and “what you offer” to get a space in the school. The quota system for moderating the carrying capacity of the schools and rationalizing learners’ population per classroom was also losing its grip on ensuring a proper fit for standardizing the student-teacher ratio. The flagship schools were fast losing their model status.

The situation with the flagship schools is not different from other channels of enrollment in the public school system. Regarding the placement exercise that guarantees, that under the Universal Basic Education, every primary 6 completer is placed in a neighborhood public secondary school, the enrollment into these secondary schools is skewed and flawed with tedious administrative processes. Learners with influential parents are placed in a choice school, sometimes to the extent that those choice schools in a locality get enrollment that exceeds their quota. The situation with public basic schools was fast becoming a skewed system where some schools were over-populated and others within the same locality were under-populated with learners. The implication of this is a distortion in the schools’ student-teacher ratio that affects the productivity of teachers and learners’ performance outcomes.

The Inter-school transfer exercise, which is another enrollment process for schools to receive new learners, was also losing its essence of providing an avenue for parents to move with their children when they relocate due to whatever genuine reasons. Erring learners from a school were exploring the inter-school transfer channel to transfer studentship to a new school without serving punishment for their indiscipline in their former school. The manual process of managing the transfer applications was encouraging this growing level of indiscipline.

Whether it was for enrollment into the flagship schools, placement into neighborhood secondary schools, or inter-school transfers, favoritism and inefficiencies ruled the system. Behind the scenes, manual processing led to revenue leakage and poor tracking, benefiting only a few at the expense of the State.

Then came the DiPER; a platform that didn’t just simplify the enrollment processes, it transformed the entire education system for efficient management of schools and learning processes. With the DiPER, every student in the State is assigned a unique Learner Identification Number (LIN) from the moment they enroll, and it’s maintained throughout their stay in the basic school system until graduation. The LIN has been assigned to over one million learners across the public and private school systems to ensure proper track of the learner’s education journey in the basic schools. The LIN is the game changer that has transformed and impacted enrollment management in no mean measure, across:

• Admission to Entry Level School:

Now that every learner in the State has been assigned LIN, new Learners can now approach their primary schools of interest for enrollment into the Pre-Primary and Primary classes. Appointed teacher in the school, saddled with the responsibility of creating an admission profile for the new learner, can use their phone device to connect the DiPER to enroll the new learner. Such new profile is screened by the DiPER through a profile matching to ensure such learner’s biodata did not exist on the DiPER against any learner in any private or public schools in the State. Once the result of the bio-data matching is appropriate, a new LIN is assigned to the learner. This approach has streamlined enrollment with the mechanism that ensures that schools admit based on available classroom space. Thus, achieving equitable distribution of learners to schools across the State in such a manner that facility in any school is not over-stretched.

• Placement from Primary to Secondary School:

The DiPER has also digitized the process of placing primary 6 completers into the neighborhood public secondary schools. Every approved public and private primary school in the State is profiled on the DiPER with mapping to multiple secondary schools in the locality. This approach offers the choice for the primary school to place their learners into the neighborhood secondary school of choice. However, the digital platform ensures that the receiving secondary school can only take learners based on its allotted space. Thus, ensuring equitable distribution of learners across the public secondary schools in the State without compromising the right of every learner to access secondary school education. The digitization of the placement exercise on the DiPER has addressed the sharp practices where learners in lower classes than primary 6 are placed in secondary schools.

• Enrollment to Flagship Schools:

Gone are the days of long queues and unfair advantages in the application process for enrollment into the flagship schools in the state. The DiPER has established a transparent, merit-driven system that prioritizes fairness and equitable access to flagship schools for secondary education. With the DiPER, prospective learners can apply online and seamlessly pay for the application form online without restrictions. The administrative process of releasing scores of the screening test is also digitized to ensure that every applicant can access their performance. Those who meet the cut-off mark that is set for a school are automatically admitted into the flagship school and they can print their admission letter from their respective profile on the DiPER platform. Others can use the Change School on the DiPER to enroll in schools where their mark meet the cut-off. This has changed the narrative in the enrollment into the flagship with every learner having equitable access to schools of their choice based on merit while ensuring that schools admit based on availability of space.

• Inter-School Transfers:

The transfer of learners across schools has been streamlined with the LIN. Whether a learner is moving between public and private schools or within the same public or private school system, LIN ensures that every student's academic record and details are easily tracked. Interested learners and parents can now apply and pay for transfer application online through the DiPER and their applications are reviewed by the authorized Ministry officials for approval. The era of long queues at the Zonal Education Offices to pay and obtain Transfer applicants has gone; the DiPER has brought an era of a streamlined, transparent, and effective transfer process. The use of the LIN for transfer processing has returned the golden era of discipline and comportment to the school system. Parents, conscious of the LIN and the ability of the DiPER to track learners across public and private school systems in the State, have embraced respect for teachers as the learners have toed the path of discipline in their conduct in schools.

Indeed, the DiPER has offered a reimagined experience and approach to the enrollment process in the Ogun State public school system. While the LIN has enforced discipline in the school system, its use of the DiPER has ensured an effective mechanism for the collection and analysis of reliable and valid education data. The education policy in Ogun State under the OGSERA is driven by data insight that is verifiable and acceptable by any standard measure of reliability. Beyond ensuring discipline and policy, the DiPER has offered an assured revenue collection and reporting platform for the education system. The integration of the payment system into the DiPER has streamlined the revenue collection system; offering private school operators and parents a transparent system of paying for government services.

With the DiPER, Parents can now access enrollment forms online, bypassing form shortages and the stress of long queues. With digital admission letters and real-time data, the entire enrollment process is more efficient, fair, and accessible. Learners can trust that their placement in flagship schools is based solely on merit and space availability, not personal connections anymore.

The transformation in Ogun State's education system has been nothing short of remarkable. Imagine over 191,000 students eagerly applying for admission to flagship schools, and more than 150,000 of them securing placements purely based on merit. It’s a shift that has redefined fairness, ensuring students are placed in schools that match their abilities and potential, rather than relying on social and political connections. Beyond flagship admissions, the state has processed over 391,000 enrollments through other pathways like School Transfers, Relocations, Placement, and Special Placements. The days of uncertainty and favoritism are fading, replaced by a system that prioritizes equity and opportunity for every child.

But the DiPER’s impact extends beyond just students. The platform empowers the entire education ecosystem by enabling real-time data to guide resource allocation where it’s needed most. Whether in rural or urban areas, schools are seeing a balanced distribution of learners and teachers. Revenue collection is transparent, and the days of costly manual paperwork are fading, replaced by a system that fosters trust at every level.

Ogun State’s success with DiPER is a powerful message for the rest of Nigeria. This adaptive model works. It’s a shining example of how locally developed technology, when used with purpose, can transform an entire sector. DiPER has proven that digitizing education is more than just adopting a technology; it’s about creating a system that explores local peculiarities and requirements to build a platform that gives every child a chance to excel.

The use of the DiPER for enrollment is just a part of what the DiPER has done to transform and revitalize education in Ogun State. Its impact transcends to simplifying school administration, offering digital platforms for enhancing teaching and learning, and providing platforms for revenue and data. Across Nigeria, other states can follow in Ogun State’s footsteps.

Policymakers, development agencies, and investors need to collaborate with EduTAMS, the driving force behind this transformation that the DiPER offers, in replicating this success story nationwide. Together, we can build a competitive, inclusive education system that serves every learner, no matter where they come from. By embracing this innovative technology platform with its adaptive deployment approach, we can ensure that Nigeria’s brightest minds have the opportunities they deserve.