Sofis Solutions held the webinar "Development Indicators in Early Childhood and Special Education" (Part Two)

Montevideo, December 8, 2020. 

Within the framework of the webinar series "Educational Information Systems," the second virtual meeting called "Development Indicators in Early Childhood and Special Education" was held on November 25, 2020. In the first note, the presentations of the speakers Dr. Alejandro Vásquez Echeverría and Mag. Maite Liz, who are part of the research team at the Institute of Child Development (INDI) in Uruguay, were shared. In this second note, the last presentation given by Mtr. Soledad Cardenal, Education Quality Manager at FOMILENIO II in El Salvador, is presented, who highlighted important aspects about educational information systems and their contribution to data-based decision-making, which will serve for the design, planning, and execution of programs in favor of the education of girls, boys, and adolescents in El Salvador.

The last presentation of that afternoon was given by Mtr. Soledad Cardenal, who shared the presentation entitled "Indicators for Decision-Making in Special Education". In it, she discussed the evolution of the approach and concepts of Special Education, how indicators can be used both for children in Primary Education and Special Education, and their contribution to decision-making at both macro and micro levels, as well as the case of SIGES (Information System for Salvadoran Educational Management), as an information tool to analyze and make data-based decisions.

"The timeline called "30 years of history of Special Education" allows us to visualize how the concept of Special Education has evolved, where it is detailed that initially people with disabilities had to be rehabilitated until reaching today’s concept of inclusion. Therefore, it is necessary to provide attention to special educational needs, to diversity that opens a view to consider that all people can have a place in the same space, and this allows the concept of integration to emerge, a process that frames how a child with some disability is welcomed in a regular school and develops a school life with special emphasis on their social being and integration. In this way, it can be seen that Special Education is not something separate from Regular Education, but they mutually support each other temporarily or permanently, in order to provide the child with the supports they may require to fully develop," states Mtr. Soledad Cardenal.

On the other hand, she shared the work done during the SIGES consultancy, a system developed by Sofis Solutions with the technical and financial support of FOMILENIO II and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a U.S. cooperation agency that established an agreement with the Government of El Salvador to support the Ministry of Education (MINED) in the design, development, and implementation of an educational management information system, resulting in the launch of SIGES. This system's main function is to collect information from indicators at the micro level for decision-making, related to policies or strategically designed interventions in favor of education in El Salvador.

Infographic: Sample of the SIGES school risk prediction dashboard

"It is worth noting that information related to indicators in student attendance, educational center, existence of a learning disorder history, special educational needs, existence of lag, among others, are indicators that may raise concern about the risk of possible school dropout or failure, which can be prevented through the design of prevention strategies, such as curricular adaptations or attention methodologies focused on diversity," affirmed Mtr. Cardenal.

To close this second virtual meeting, the speakers shared their conclusions during the "Questions and Answers" session, where they responded to comments from the audience.

"I want to thank the space and all the people listening to us. I believe it is a very important topic, as in January or February all educational systems must evaluate to be able to make decisions about the great demands the education systems have. Children faced a great challenge this year, as almost all of 2020 they were isolated from classrooms, which not only affects learning but the entire development, as well as people with special educational needs. I believe perfecting techniques and, thanks to the analysis of all that information, it can contribute to decision-making, which is fundamental for social, educational, and health transitions (…) We are in full transformation and for this, it is necessary to be aware of attending and adapting to the needs of each child, as well as people with special needs who should be a priority for society," expresses Mtr. Soledad Cardenal.

"(…) For us, this year was not easy in achieving evaluation, as one of the constant struggles was to establish the relevance of evaluation, where different factors must be known, including the situation to be analyzed, the best decisions to consider, having the correct population, and in our particular case the child population, but especially those transitioning into Primary Education (…) Particularly in Uruguay, there is a very important break between Preschool Education and Primary Education, where children suffer this transition. Therefore, it is important to have inputs to prevent and accompany timely. For this, we have developed this information system, considering the relevance of this type of transition, even more so in the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic. I believe the impact of confinement in Uruguay was less than in other countries. It is worth noting there was interaction on the Plan Ceibal platform in Uruguay, which is a digital plan for all children, who through this system could continue relatively working virtually. All this is important to evaluate in Early Childhood for the exercise of their rights, the attention to needs, and the distribution of resources. (...) In this regard, INDI seeks to issue results at different levels: individual, group, center, regional, and even reports that are delivered to authorities on the status and situation of the child population as a whole (...)", mentions Mag. Maite Liz.

Finally, Dr. Alejandro Vásquez highlights: "I greatly appreciate the opportunity to share our experience and learn about the very interesting experience of SIGES (…) we remain open to questions, doubts, and exchanges to share the INDI experience with other realities from other countries in the region that may be interested in using it."

The webinar "Development Indicators in Early Childhood and Special Education" was recorded and is available on the Sofis Latin America YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/UvwZJ6DDYEw.