• Create class names for all classes in every grade offered by the school and do the Classes Update by placing every existing learner on CEMIS in the relevant 2008 class.
• Transfer-in any learners already on CEMIS who join your school by using the learner unique number on the CEMIS transfer certificate
• Transfer-out the learners who have requested to leave your school. Do the transaction online, then print and issue the transfer certificate.
• Deregister any learner on CEMIS who did not return to take up a seat at your school by 29 January 2008. If some learners arrive late (after the 30 January 2008), they can be reregistered at your school.
• Capture any learner attending school for the first time or from another province or country as a New Registration on CEMIS. Primary schools must capture on the offline tool, then upload the learners to CEMIS, while high schools can capture new registrations online.
• Print out the blank online capture screens and provide them to the principal who must manage their completion. Capture the completed forms, received from the principal, online and provide the principal with a copy printed from CEMIS to verify the accurate capturing of the school staff information. File these copies at school.
• Complete and submit all the sign off screens by 30 January 2008.

PLEASE NOTE: CEMIS applies the following rules with regard to class names:

• CEMIS will PREFIX the name of any class with a CEMIS Grade identifier which will be followed by the school class name. Classes can be renamed.
• All letters in the class name will be changed to upper case.
• No spaces will be allowed in the class name which the school allocates.
• Please ensure that you select the correct grade whenever you create class names.
• Multigrade class groups are created when the defaulted ("no") multigrade indicator is set to "yes".

By doing class updates, the school can also ensure that its learner numbers are accurate on CEMIS.

Please ensure that this update is done as early as possible in the planning and preparation of the school programme, preferably on or prior to the school opening. CEMIS automatically placed all learners in their correct grade for 2008 after the promotions process. Thus the learners appearing in a grade will include both those who promoted from the previous grade, as well as those learners who were not promoted and remained in the same grade.

• Ensure that all transfers and deregistrations and re-registrations are completed online as they occur at school. This will ensure that the learner number administration is reliable.
• Use the transfer certificates: issue them to learners leaving your school and insist on receiving them for learners entering your school. File these certificates at school, as they will be used in audit processes.
• Do not issue transfer certificates for Grade 12s who completed their schooling in 2007.
• Printing of the transfer certificate from the system is done by clicking on the Transfer/Exit menu and selecting "Print Forms" from the submenu. Click on the letter with which the surname starts. A list of names will appear. Click on the learner. The print dialogue screen will appear, allowing you to select the printer and change printer settings. Please ensure that the printer's page size setting is set to A4 and not "letter". If the page size is set to "letter", the certificate will print over 2 pages. Insert a blank transfer form in the printer and Click "Print" to print the form.
• The principal dates the transfer at the time of signing the form.

• Learners entering the system who have not been registered in CEMIS since 2005, e.g. learners who were not at a public or some independent schools in the Western Cape, are new registrations. They are, generally, first-time registrations in public schools into Pre-Gr R, Gr R, Grade 1, or have come from other countries, provinces or some independent schools.
• The New Registration forms have been posted to the school. Please have these forms completed by a school official who understands the questions on the form and who knows how to complete the form accurately. Do not issue the form to parents to complete. The signed form must be used to capture the registration on CEMIS.
• Copies may be made of the form.
• It is very important that the national identity number of the learner be supplied, where it exists. In cases where it is not available, the parent or guardian must be supported to apply to Home Affairs to get the learner registered as soon as possible.
• Currently, a unique CEMIS learner reference number is generated on registration in the system. This number will be used until it is replaced by the national identity number.
• Please observe and apply all the stipulations specified on the form.
• High schools and primary schools with small numbers of new registrations will have to capture all new registrations online.

• Primary and combined schools that register large numbers of new registrations have been provided with a new CEMIS Offline 2008 capture tool supplied on CD. This CD was posted to most primary schools and should have been received by 20 November 2007. This tool will auto-install once the CD disc is inserted into the CD-ROM drive of the school computer. Please ensure that you have administrator rights to load the programme.
• The previous capturing tool of 2007, used at the beginning of 2007, is no longer valid. The old CEMIS icon can be deleted from the desktop.
• The new CEMIS offline 2008 tool will only allow the capture of pre-Grade R, Grade R and Grade 1 new registrations.
• It important that the "Add Class" function is used to create the class names in each grade before capturing new registrations on the offline tool. Should the Active X or blocked content message be displayed, please click the "OK" button to accept.
• Any new registration into any grade other than the three mentioned above should be captured while the school is connected online to the database. During the online capture immediate checks are done to determine whether the learner does not already exist in the database.

• Growth and Curriculum post applications: This online request facility is assessed and considered for approval through various stages. In stage 1 the EMIS office must do the necessary checks to indicate that the CEMIS learner numbers are checked and reliable. It is very important that a school gets the learners administration processes done on CEMIS as soon as possible to eliminate any delays.
• Examination registrations: CEMIS data is used to register learners for different examinations. The principal manages the school process of ensuring that the learners' information is correct. Gr 12 registrations must be completed by the end of March 2008.
• Grade change requests: Online functionality allows the school to make capture corrections or to apply to the circuit manager to approve any special cases of grade changes. Poor promotion administration caused many requests for grade changes. Principals must ensure that learners are placed or admitted according to the promotion achievements. Many learners promoted themselves and ended up in the wrong grade because of inadequate checks and records control.
• Online quarterly learner and educator attendance return: An online capture screen will be made available to principals to capture the quarterly attendance summary return from the end of the first term 2008. Please ensure that the necessary registers are maintained to provide the summary details in the last week of each term.
• Online surveys: SNAP and ANNUAL surveys are conducted online. These can only be accurate if the learner details are checked and updated as required. It could potentially save much administrative labour and can provide valuable management reports to the entire system all year round if school learner information is kept up to date. Principals must please ensure that the required tasks are managed and supported by the office.

(a)	The subjects of the new Grade 10s of 2008 must be captured on CEMIS. The bulk subject allocation option simplifies this process. It is a prerequisite that the classes' update should have been completed before undertaking this process.

(b)	The new Grade 11 and 12s of 2008 will (in most cases) continue with their NCS FET subjects taken in Grade 10 during 2007. The Grade 10 and 11 subject codes for these learners will be changed programmatically by CEMIS to the corresponding Grade 11 and 12 subject codes.

(c)	The Grade 12s of 2007 were the last learners to take the old curriculum subjects. All learners on CEMIS in 2008 will have the NCS FET subjects.

(d)

The learners per subject report makes it easy to identify wrong subjects in the grades. Grade 10 to 12 subject codes are 8 digits in length and do not have HG and SG distinction. Clicking on the hyperlinked numbers in the table provides the names of the learners taking the subject. Use this report to identify subject related data problems and to fix them.

(e)	It is important for schools to ensure that the subject allocations are done accurately, as it will affect the school's 2009 staff establishment.

(a)	CEMIS displays a range of reports to provide information from the data in the system, e.g. learner status reports, subjects and disabilities.

(b)

When the blue grade-number of the learner control report is clicked, then the summarised learner information for the grade appears. If the information is selected per class and printed out, it can be given to each class teacher to verify during a class administration period. In this manner the entire school's dataset can be checked and corrected, if necessary, within a short time.

(c)	The suggestion in b) simplifies the checking process and the CEMIS admin staff can update the school dataset effectively with this collaborative exercise.

(d)	Principals can request any report that can be generated from the data available to CEMIS. Please call 0800 204 800 or fax your report request to 021 425 7445.

(a)	Useful information from a database is dependent on accurate data. Please use the learner information reports, as indicated in a) and b) above, to correct and verify the school's data.

(b)	Data correctness reports per school are provided programmatically to circuit managers each week. These management reports assess the level of correctness of data on language of teaching, learner type, disabilities, class updates and subjects taken.

The national Department of Education (DoE) is conducting a national 4% EMIS audit in all public and independent ordinary and special schools, ABET centres and FET colleges. The Education Research Circular Minute 0002/2007 of 6 November 2007 has reference. The audit will be conducted over a period of three years.

The DoE has developed a school administration package, SA-SAMS, which is being rolled out to schools nationally. The WCED, in conjunction with DoE, is currently developing a programme which will integrate CEMIS with such a web-based SA-SAMS package. It is intended to pilot this programme towards the end of 2008.