UNESCO's International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) has been conducting research as well as developing capacity in nation states to establish policies and systems for good governance and effective decision making in education. IIEP in its introduction to its course on Educational Management Information Systems says "the expansion of education systems has been accompanied by an emergence of multiple levels of decision-making. While the former trend increases the amount of data to be handled, the latter implies the multiple levels where data are demanded. Efforts towards decentralisation have also contributed to this. There is now an increasing demand for developing Educational Management Information Systems (EMIS) and for data uses to monitor progress and evaluate outcomes."

Source: http://www.iiep.unesco.org/capacity-development/training/courses-at-iiep/short-term-courses/educational-management-information-system-emis.html

EMIS is established with the purpose of collecting and integrating all information with regard to planning and management activities in education from various sources. Specifically the operations involved in the organisation of EMIS are collection, processing, storage, retrieval, analysis and dissemination of data.

The article starts with a definition of EMIS by Tom Cassidy which is reproduced here:

Educational management Information System (EMIS) is a "system for the collection, integration, processing, maintenance and dissemination of data and information to support decision making, policy-analysis and formulation, planning, monitoring and management at all levels of an education system."

What does this imply? This implies that EMIS refer not only to the technology and database software needed for all activities in the educational system such as recruiting, hiring, placing, and supporting teachers and providing the necessary logistical support in terms of buildings, furniture, maintenance, instructional materials, training of staff, student demographics and placement but also the processes and culture of using this information for taking all decisions related to planning, monitoring and management at all levels.

EMIS is undergoing some transformation at the technical levels. Originally the EMIS was based on the creation of educational statistics for planning purposes at the central level. However with more and more decentralisation of decision making EMIS also involves decentralisation of educational data at school, district and regional levels. The more schools, colleges and universities are empowered in handling and using their own data and the more these institutions adopt open standards and harmonised coding systems, the better for data integration, control and usage at national levels.

If one looks at the development of the EMIS in the last decade you will find that the technology and tools have improved thanks to developments in information and telecommunication technology. What has not changed much is the use of EMIS for planning and decision making due to a number of reasons. These include a lack of ownership of data and a lack of a culture of information seeking and use. Other challenges range from a lack of capacity at school levels, inadequate communications infrastructure and a lack of resources to scale up successful EMIS programmes.

The author raises the following issues related to EMIS and its development.

1. What are the major trends in the EMIS environment in terms of adopting tools and technologies such as mobile and wireless platforms and distributed databases?
2. What were the key challenges in implementing an integrated and decentralised EMIS?
3. What are the most critical success factors of the implementation of EMIS so far?
4. What should policy makers and donors do over the next ten years to improve the collection, organisation and use of educational data and information at all levels?