Design and coordination of information services for New Zealand education

Abstract

The evolution of New Zealand's education information system is discussed and analyzed comparatively. Two major characteristics are identified. First, a long-term lack of planning and coordination, productive of many difficulties and inefficiencies. Second, and of more recent origins, a high degree of computerization, of the PC (personal computer) rather than the mainframe variety. In the historical absence of any institution willing to assume responsibility for New Zealand's education information system, no secondary service was established prior to the introduction of computers, either mainframes or PCs, into this country. In the absence of a pre-existing service to be computerized, the main effect of a coincidental greater availability of PC, rather than mainframe, technology has been to disperse, rather than concentrate, information and services. The overall, and still continuing, effect is thus a marked exacerbation of all the problems caused originally by lack of vision and imagination. Two solutions are presented. The first, based on a review of the literature on user needs and preferences, is a complete re-development of the information system for New Zealand education, covering products as well as services. The second and more pragmatic option involves acceptance of the de-centralized and uncoordinated nature of the New Zealand education information system, and thus concentration not on information policy but on the improvement of what has become the system's key element or component, namely the PC database. The latter entails three things: database design, indexing language and indexing methodology, and all have been given considerable attention. Generally, ERIC, the American database that has become the standard against which all other education databases are measured, has been used as a source of examples, and as a basis for critical comparison.