As the custodian agency of most indicators for the fourth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 4), the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) is setting the targets of the SDGs by creating frameworks to better monitor progress. However, monitoring SDG 4 and charting a nation’s progress over time is no easy feat as attaining robust comparable statistics over time is crucial yet difficult to achieve. The Operational Guide to Using EMIS to Monitor SDG 4 is intended to strengthen this vital variable by providing concise operational definitions and presenting concrete national examples of how to measure indicators. The first International Conference on Education Management Information Systems (EMIS), which was hosted by UNESCO and the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) in April 2018, led to the development of the Efficiency and Effectiveness in Choosing and Using an EMIS – Guidelines for Data Management and Functionality in EMIS. These guidelines list EMIS functionality standards required to supply accurate, valid information to education sector policymakers, school managers and international organizations to whom most countries report. The Operational Guide to Using EMIS to Monitor SDG 4 serves as a companion publication that provides in-depth operational guidance on how to implement data collection from the viewpoint of existing global commitments related to SDG 4 indicators. This publication elaborates on the processes followed by the UIS to aggregate and curate data, and explores the key characteristics of existing national EMIS to illustrate the capacity of this tool to produce administrative data. In addition, this Guide proposes a set of standards to illustrate and support countries in their efforts to collect and produce better quality data. Information is a necessary resource produced by information systems and is a key building block of management and decision-making in education. Effective decision-making relies on quality data managed within efficient information systems. With the proper guidance, EMIS can be used to fulfil this need, serving not only as a technological solution to operational processes but as an information system to facilitate strategic decision-making, policy formulation, budgeting and – if necessary – routine management above and towards the school.