Webinar: Nominal student registers. Uses in educational planning

In the 90-minute session, specialists from three countries in the region will present their experiences: Gabriel Gómez Sosa (Research and Statistics Division of the Ministry of Education and Culture of Uruguay), Eivy Doris Zelaya Villafranca (National Educational Information System of Honduras), and Nicolás Ramírez (Directorate of Coverage and Equity of the National Ministry of Education of Colombia). The discussion will be moderated by Fernanda Luna (IIEP UNESCO, Latin America Office).

Additionally, we will have the participation of Alejandro Vera (UNESCO Santiago), Nancy Montes (IIEP UNESCO, Latin America Office), Natalia Fernández Laya (IIEP UNESCO, Latin America Office), and Martín Scasso (UNESCO Santiago).

Education Management and Information Systems (EMIS) in Latin America and the Caribbean have made significant advances, allowing greater access to educational data. A key innovation in this regard is the individualized and digitized registration of students, which improves the monitoring of trajectories, enables the generation of early warning systems, facilitates the management and prioritization of resources, and promotes the interoperability of systems. This seminar addresses these challenges and potentials, with the discussion of national experiences and reflections on the use of nominal registers in educational policy.

In recent years, EMIS have undergone a process of modernization accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to a "forced modernization" to meet emerging needs. One of the most significant changes has been the adoption of nominal registers, which individually identify each student with a unique code, regardless of school changes or location.

According to a study by the UNESCO Institute of Statistics, in 2020, 80% of the countries in the region were already using these registers, and an additional 17% planned to implement them in the near future. Additionally, 58% of the countries had this register for at least the last 5 years.

In this webinar, reflections and guidelines will be presented for addressing the uses of nominalised student registers in educational planning, considering the following questions:

• What educational policy opportunities does the availability of nominalised student registers create?
• What are the main applications of use and what contributions can they make to the educational systems of the region?
• What requirements and conditions of the EMIS are necessary to carry out these policies?
• What are the main challenges and tensions when designing and implementing policies based on nominalised registers?