SIF Association AU release Statement of Intent for SIF Adoption in Australia

WASHINGTON - Dec. 4, 2013 - PRLog -- The Australian Statement of Intent is made by the National Schools Interoperability Program (NSIP) Steering Group on behalf of Australia’s State and Territory Education Departments and the non-government school sectors’ representative bodies.  The NSIP Steering Group is authorized by the Australian Education Early Childhood and Youth Affairs Senior Officials Committee (AEEYSOC) to provide sector-wide advice on the technical and interoperability aspects of national education projects.  This Statement is also endorsed by the SIF Association AU Management Board (SIFAAMB), which includes elected representatives of vendor members of the SIF Association, active in Australia.

The Systems Interoperability Framework, widely known as SIF, is an international specification for the exchange of school data, which is managed through the global SIF Association. The SIF Association is comprised of education providers and software vendors who have a common interest in having software applications interact and share data.

In November 2009, the SIF standard was endorsed by Australia’s State, Territory and Commonwealth Education Ministers as the preferred method for exchanging information across the Australian school sector.  This decision was based on the acceptance of a business case that showed that the number of information and learning systems used in the education sector was growing rapidly and that the corresponding complexity of integration would continue to grow without collaborative efforts. This led to the establishment of the National Schools Interoperability Program (NSIP) in 2010 to develop and promote common national approaches, including hosting the SIF Association and its work in Australia.  The NSIP Steering Group and its members use this Statement to reiterate their support for the use of SIF as their preferred method for data exchange in the Australian schools sector.

"This (the statement) demonstrates the commitment of Governments and vendors to collaborate in providing the better learning environments for Australians in the digital world" explains Adam Todhunter, Chair of SIF Association Australian Management Board and NSIP Steering Group Member.

“This Statement shows the level of commitment from the Australian educational community’s leadership in creating interoperable standards for data transfer” states Dr. Larry Fruth II, Ph.D. “By utilizing an open standard, such as the SIF AU Student Information System Baseline Profile (SBP), it can reduce the complexity and cost for schools and create level expectations for consumers and suppliers.”

More information on the Statement of Intent for SIF Adoption in Australia is available from the SIF website - https://www.sifassociation.org/AboutUs/Why-Interoperability/Pages/Statement-of-Intent-(AU).aspx

About the SIF Association

The SIF Association is a unique, non-profit collaboration composed of over 3,200 schools, districts, local authorities, states, US and International Ministries of Education, software vendors and consultants who collectively define the rules and regulations for educational software data interoperability. The SIF Implementation Specification enables diverse applications to interact and share data efficiently, reliably, and securely regardless of the platform hosting those applications. The SIF Association has united these education technology end users and providers in an unprecedented effort to give teachers more time to do what they do best: teach.  For further information, visit http://www.sifassociation.org.