Efficiency and effectiveness in choosing and using an EMIS: guidelines for data management and functionality in Education management Information systems (EMIS)

The Guidelines are a direct result of a request from developing countries for guidance on the features that an EMIS should ideally provide, and how to make better use of those features. Country representatives meeting with UNESCO, GPE and other partners felt that since there was no default standard EMIS software produced by the international community, and since it may not be desirable to produce a standard default software, at least a guide of desirable features could be provided. Countries have often produced their own systems or have adopted – partially or in whole – systems provided by various suppliers. In addition, in discussing financial or technical support with development agencies, countries had felt that they do not have a good sense of what they ought to negotiate and discuss with the agencies given the lack of standards or guidelines. The Guidelines aim to help countries ensure efficiency in choosing and using an EMIS approach. That is, making sure that such systems are as complete as possible while containing as few redundant elements as possible. In addition, the Guidelines emphasize that the systems ought to make it easier to provide value-added information to policy makers and managers by maximizing the interoperability and linkages between the various databases that education sectors manage. For instance, allowing for the identification of schools that might be underperforming relative to their circumstances, or performing better than expected and thus providing lessons learned. Finally, partners requested that the Guidelines provide a holistic view of what a well-functioning EMIS system should look like, in terms of connections to an education sector’s stated goals as well as flows and links between data elements (enrollment, cost, personnel, etc.) in the sector. The Guidelines are framed within the context of the fourth Sustainable Development Goal for Education (SDG 4) without implying that global reporting ought to be the main aim of EMIS systems. Some countries have also requested information and guidelines on how one could implement learner and teacher identification systems so as to improve the tracking of learners who drop out and hence school completion. These guidelines strive to fulfill all the aforementioned missions. The UIS and GPE hope that countries and partners find the Guidelines useful in fulfilling their requests.