Major improvements to education data for iwi

This week’s education data release signals a major overhaul for Te Mataaho-a-Iwi (Education Dashboard for iwi), enabling iwi to have a richer and robust tool to support the educational needs and aspirations of their ākonga.

The new dashboard features the ability to see patterns and trends for learners, making the data more effective at forecasting education needs for ākonga Māori.

Te Mataaho-a-Iwi, Iteration II was developed in partnership with iwi leaders and the Ministry of Education as part of the commitment to ensure iwi decision making is supported by appropriate and fulsome data and statistics.

Alex Brunt, Tumu Te Puna Mōhiotanga (National Director for Evidence Data and Knowledge) at the Ministry, says extensive work has been done to improve the quality of the underlying data, providing a higher degree of confidence to iwi.

“Iwi can access info and graphics showing schools and locations, early childhood education participation, Māori language learning, highest attainment and tertiary destinations of their members – noting attendance data is not in this iteration. The enhanced data and insights include: 

• Time-series data enabling iwi to see trends and patterns for their ākonga, supporting iwi to be more effective at forecasting needs for iwi-Maori learners.
• Data infrastructure improvements to make future updates and enhancements faster and less burdensome. This means that data can be updated much sooner after it becomes available, giving iwi a timelier view of the educational pathways and achievements of ākonga in their rohe.
• The move to a new visualization platform has increased the tool’s functionality and is starting to make data assessments more relevant to answering the questions iwi may have.”

Cyril Mako, Chief Adviser Priority Learners for the Ministry, is working with iwi so they can fully utilise the dashboard and says the collaboration does not stop there.

“Over the medium term it is our aim to grow this dashboard by adding further data so that iwi have a way to access data that provide insights into the educational pathways of their ākonga and supports their decision-making process.

This work will continue to be guided by iwi data needs and as this project matures, iwi will have a rich repository of insights into ākonga achievement and pathways.” 

The dashboard will be available at the Ministry’s Education Counts website.