University of Colombo

Faculty of Graduate Studies

Masters in Information System Management - 2018/2019

MISM6205 – Introduction to Research Methods

Individual Assignment

Registration No: 2018/19/MISM/052

Research Proposal:
INVESTIGATING THE IMPACTS OF TEACHER INFORMATION SYSTEM TO MAKE DECISIONS
FOR THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION IN SRI LANKA.
Introduction
In this research proposal, I will lay out a plan on how I intend to conduct my research
on the above topic. According to Hart (2005), the research proposal is a plan or a map that
guides the researcher to achieve his outcomes by following a research process and to justify
his reasons for conducting a specific research project in a specific way. Therefore, my
intention of writing this proposal is to communicate why I selected this particular research
topic and how I intend to conduct it using the methodology I selected. This section will briefly
outline why I was interested in conducting a research on Teacher Information System (TIS)
and the structure of the remainder of the proposal.

The Ministry of Education (MoE) is the line ministry of the government of Sri Lanka
that directs the formulation and implementation of policies related to primary and secondary
education. The ministry is consisting of 9 Provincial Education Departments (PEDs), 99 Zonal
Education Offices (ZEOs), 314 Divisional Education Offices (DEOs), 20 National Collages of
Education (NCoE), 373 National Schools (NS), 9803 Provincial Schools (PS), 780 Pirivena
institutes and 80 Private Schools. The Department of Examination (DoE), Department of
Publication (DoP) and National Institute of Education (NIE) are functioning under the ministry.

There are four million two hundred thousand students, around two hundred fifty
thousand academic staff and around thirty thousand non-academic staff are comes under the
ministry (School Census Report, 2017). National Education Management Information System
(NEMIS) is a repository for data collection, processing, analysing and reporting used by MoE,
non-government organizations, researchers, donors and other education stakeholders for
research; policy and planning; monitoring and evaluation; and decision making. TIS is
addressing to manage the all teachers in government schools (NS and PS), private schools and
pirivena institutes island wide, considered as one of major sub system under the NEMIS.

Background of the study

TIS is an online web portal that automates the entire end-to-end management of
teacher information and related administration functions of teachers. The primary aim of the
TIS is to collect, provide and analyse real-time teacher data for better decision-making.
Furthermore TIS automates the manual processes of administration functions which decrease
the wastage of time and resources. TIS consists of modules which handle basically all the
entities related to teachers by educational offices at zonal level and provincial levels and the
national level. (Ministry of Education, n.d.)

Ministry officials are in need of accurate and up-to-date teacher information that can be
readily accessible. They need internal and external information to be made available for
effective and efficient decision-making. In order to improve their service delivery, the
ministry must aim to reach their objective to increase and improve efficiency, productivity
and quality of services delivered to teachers. However it can be summarised that there are
three inherent challenges, which affect sourcing reliable information. Firstly, a central
repository, whereby information can be accessed, does not exist, as information is

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fragmented into separate environments. Secondly, there is a clear lack of proper
management of information. Lastly, an additional challenge is posed by a lack of policies, as
there is no guidance or effective communication in this regard.

Decisions are taken at national, provincial and zonal level thus requires updated
information at each level. As a response to this requirement the Ministry has taken initiative
to implement TIS in 2012 and since then the information system has been utilised in decision-
making. However, its impact is never been studied and my intention is to investigate how the
TIS is used at each level for decision making process by the education administrators.

ZEO is maintaining a personal file for each and every teacher in their office and its
containing the whole appropriate details of teacher. Ministry has been introduced a
mechanism to tie up the details of teacher with the TIS. There is a separate branch call teacher
establishment branch in each ZEO to maintain the teacher personal files. Teachers’ personal
file is handling by Management Assistant and monitoring by one administrative officer and a
Deputy Director. Single Management assistant is handling average 300 teachers’ personal
files. This is very cumbersome process in the branch. There are 1600 officials are serving by
the TIS.

Aims of the study

I intent to investigate the following aims.
1. Review the current status of the TIS (National/Provincial/Zonal)
2. Investigate the perception of current users of TIS
3. Investigate the factors effecting the successful implementation of TIS at each
level
4. Identify the challenges face by education administrators in using TIS
5. Identify the recommendations for the improvements to the existing TIS.

Literature Review
The literature review is an important aspect of the research project. In my proposal, I
will look at TIS on administrative point of view. Most of literature I found from the side of
school administration and very few literature found in fact of Teacher administration in
National, Provincial and Zonal levels in the local context. The guide line to the relevant
authorities to implement the TIS were outline by the MoE circular No. 30/2019 dated
2019.06.07 and manual of instructions issued with the circular related to the TIS established
under NEMIS in the same day.

In any business process decision making plays a vital part. Since information plays a
very critical role in decision making, Organisation must assure that they have a proper and
fruitful MIS (Jahangir, 2005). A successful MIS leads to improved decision making and likewise
poorly designed MIS leads to bad results. Basically, before making a decision on which
Management Information System strategy to use, it must be harmonious with the current
system. It will not only help in avoiding inconsistent choices, but it will also save time and

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money, which would have been otherwise wasted by that person (Jahangir, 2005 & Rhodes,
2010).

Typically, without an established system, it would be highly difficult for the

organizations to make correct decisions. By real-time, scholars refer to instant updates of
occurrences in a system. It strengthens progress and improvement in company operations
through timely decision-making. It is important for businesses in the modern-day generation
where any slight lapse in decision making can lead to a huge loss (Allen, Heurtebise & Turnbull
(2010). By routinely programming an MIS, the company or business is obliged to make
progress since resources and time can be easily directed into legitimate business paths
(Davenport & Short 1990).

Jahangir mentioned that a few Management Info Systems enable most users to reach
the same content all at the same time. (Jahangir, 2005). As a matter of fact, most companies
suffer due to a weak accountability.

When considering the above matters it is essential to utilise the TIS as an opportunity
to maximise transparency by maintaining an accurate and updated system to increase
efficiently in service delivery for teachers and service satisfaction and make optimal policies
on academic cadre in government schools, pirivenas, private schools (aided and un-aided)
and special assisted schools teachers’ information maintaining by TIS.

Methodology
I will use mixed methods to collect data using two sets of questionnaires which will be
analysed by quantitative and qualitative methods. The study sample will include 99 Zonal
planning directors from ZEOs, 9 provincial planning directors from PEDs and 7 planning
directors from the ministry. There are two side I have to consider in this research first one is
the administrative point of view and the other side is benefits gain by the teachers by the
system. I will consider the administrative side of this system for this study while keeping
teacher side as future research area.

Ethics
I will gain the informed consent by presenting a consent sheet along with the
information sheet which will inform the participants of my intentions of the interviews and
the research and participants rights to withdraw from the research at any point of time. In
my research, I expect to protect the confidentiality and anonymity of the participants by not
mentioning either the office name or the participants’ names. I will take the approval from
the MoE to collect data from officials who work in each levels. I will not mentioned the name
of institute when publishing the research paper to the public.

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References
Allen, B., Heurtebise, A., & Turnbull, J. (2010). Improving Information Access. Business
Management US. Retrieved October 2, 2010 from
http://www.busmanagement.com/article/Improving-information-access/

Davenport, T. H., & Short, J. E. (1990). The new industrial engineering: Information
technology and business process redesign. MIT Sloan Management Review.

http://sloanreview.mit.edu/the-magazine/articles/1990/summer/3141/the-
newindustrial-engineering-information-technology-and-business-process-
redesign/2/

Department of Census & Statistics. (2017). School Census Report. Retrieved August 1, 2019,
from http://www.statistics.gov.lk/education/School%20Census%20Report_2017.pdf

Hart, C. (2005). Doing your Masters dissertation. London: Sage.

Jahangir, K. (2005). Improving Organizational best practices with information systems.
Knowledge Management Review. Retrieved October 2, 2010 from
http://findarticles.com/articles/mi qa5362/is 200501/ai n21371132
Ministry of Education. (n.d.). Ministry of Education Teacher Information System Web Portal.
Retrieved from https://www.nemis.moe.gov.lk
Rhodes, J. (2010). The Role of Management Information Systems in Decision Making. eHow.
Retrieved October 2, 2010 from http://www.ehow.com/facts_7147006_role-
informationsystems-decision-making.html

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