DHIS2 for Education

UN Sustainable Development Goal 4 (Quality Education) calls for the use of data to guide improvement in learning outcomes and equitable access to education. DHIS2 for Education extends the DHIS software platform from the health sector to the education sector for the collection, analysis, visualization, and use of individual and aggregate data from institutions of learning. DHIS2 for Education takes advantage of decades of DHIS2 experience with national-level HMIS systems, offering a stable, scalable, and customizable Education Management Information System (EMIS) solution that is backed by international donor organizations as a global public good, supported by the DHIS2 development team and global HISP network, and allows countries to leverage their existing DHIS2 capacity and expertise.

Because DHIS2 for Education is built on the core DHIS2 platform, it allows for seamless integration with Tracker and DHIS2 Apps, and uses DHIS2 sharing features to allow controlled access to data and analytics at all levels of the education system. It also facilitates the development of national- and international-level programs that use data from across sectors, such as a schools-based child immunization campaign, by making it easy to combine health and education data in one report or custom dashboard. And it allows for integration with other software platforms (such as logistics, human resources, grading systems and payroll).
This page provides an overview of DHIS2 for Education, including where it is being used now, key features, examples of real-life use cases, and information on how you can test the system for yourself. You can also watch a presentation on this project from the 2020 DHIS2 Annual Conference for more information and updates from the field, and join the discussion on the DHIS2 Community of Practice.

What can DHIS2 for Education be used for?

DHIS2 for Education is a flexible, open-source platform that is designed to be adaptable to a wide range of use cases. It supports both aggregate and individual-level data, data entry on desktop and mobile devices, the creation of custom web and Android apps, and integration with other software platforms through open APIs. Some example uses are listed below. If you have questions about how DHIS2 for Education can be adapted to meet your needs, we encourage you to contact us by email. You can also review our online demo database to explore the basic features of the system.
  • School Management
  • Student Enrollment and Attendance
  • Infrastructure Management
  • Nutrition and Hygiene
  • Resource Allocation
  • Multi-Sectoral Analysis (Health, Education, Nutrition, Social Protection)

For an overview of some key considerations in selecting an EMIS platform, you can review the report published by UNESCO and Global Partnership for Education (GPE): Efficieny and Effectiveness in Choosing and Using an EMIS

Where is DHIS2 for Education used?

The following interactive map and chart show countries that are piloting DHIS2 for Education, in addition to full-scale and pilot DHIS2 implementations for health data.

Is your country's DHIS2 for Education implementation missing from our map? Share the details with us through our online form.

Example Use Cases: Improving Education and Public Health

Our current pilot projects in The Gambia and Uganda have already shown some of the exciting and impactful ways that DHIS2 for Education can be used both to improve education systems and public health programs by triangulating education and health data.

Lessons Learned, Best Practices, and Stories from the Field

At the 2020 DHIS2 Annual Conference, HISP implementing partners and Ministry of Education representatives from Uganda and The Gambia joined members of the HISP-UiO team to present details and lessons learned from the ongoing DHIS2 for Education pilot projects.

Watch the presentation

EMIS DHIS2 for Education Uganda
Data for Education Planning in Uganda

The Ugandan DHIS2 for Education pilot has been running since mid-2019 in select urban, peri-urban, and rural districts, and is already a big success. The school districts using DHIS2 have not only embraced the system for pre-primary and primary schools--using it to make strategic decisions about school infrastructure improvements and more--but hope to expand into secondary and tertiary education as well.

Read more >>

EMIS DHIS2 for Education Immunization
Combining School and Health Data for Immunization Campaigns

In October 2019, Uganda launched a country-wide immunization campaign targeting 18 million children. The MoH used DHIS2 for data collection and visualization, and the Ministry of Education shared DHIS2 data on school registration to help determine the scale and target population for the campaign. This was a great example of inter-Ministry collaboration, and of how education and health data can be combined for better outcomes.

Read more >>

Research on DHIS2 for Education

The development of DHIS2 for Education is part of a research project organized by the HISP program at the University of Oslo (UiO). The objective of this research project is to understand how best to leverage DHIS2 to enhance education data use at all levels of the education system. You can read more about this research project on the UiO website.

Some early findings and lessons learned from this research were presented by the HISP-UiO team and partner organizations from Uganda and The Gambia at the 2020 DHIS2 Annual Conference. You can watch the recording of this presentation on the DHIS2 YouTube channel.

Try It Yourself

Explore DHIS2 for Education on your own using our online demo database (login required): DHIS2 for Education Interactive Demo