Identification of factors affecting successful adoption of MIS for ministry of education in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The objectives for the education of Sri Lanka have shifted from their former focus on access, expansion, maintenance to improving the quality of education and strengthening, governance and service delivery. Hence, all managers are required to engage in compiling a more composite collection of policy adoptions and more data which originate from various sources and at different levels. As the Ministry of Education requires implementing significant changes to the functions and management process in order to face challenges with confidence. However, it is evident that the Ministry of Education was unable to adopt management information successfully for the past twenty years. In spite of making several efforts to introduce online systems, functionality and sustainability had become rather challenging. Therefore, this study attempts to develop a Management Information System (MIS) adoption strategy to ensure successful implementation of MIS for the Ministry of Education by identifying factors that affect implementation. The present study has comprehensively focused on three major independent variables which are: organization; technology and people. The population for this study comprised of top level managers of the Ministry of Education and Provincial and Zonal level administration and monitoring structure of the education system. Data collection had been carried out from 196 managers in decision making process and both qualitative and quantitative methods were used. After conducting a comprehensive literature survey, many factors were found which are common in numerous public sector organizations. In the study, technology and people were identified as highly influential factors causing the failure of the MIS implementation at the Ministry of Education in Sri Lanka. Non-availability of an information management policy has been found to be a major factor for system implementation, continuity, and sustainability of the MIS at the Ministry of Education. As per the results of the study, top management support, organization readiness for the acceptance of the system proved to be the positive factors that would affect the feasibility of MIS adoption at the Ministry of Education. This research brings out a valuable adoption strategy that could be incorporated into the process of Education Management Information System implementation with successful outcomes. Further, this study provides guidance to the public sector organizations that could be explored further as future researches, in the field of successful information system adoption.