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Donors and planners often have unrealistic expectations about what can be achieved in a short time period and underestimate the challenges facing EMIS. Donors have often tended to assume that EMIS outputs would play an important role in helping managers to administer their education system in a more efficient and effective manner, while, governments have assumed that EMIS output would help them identify priority areas for targeting resources and helping them monitoring progress of strategies towards defined objectives. A review of four country cases reveals that this does not always occur and significant problems are often experienced with the operation of EMIS at all levels of the education system, and in the vast majority of instances systems are unsustainable without a considerable amount of donor support. Similarly, the utilisation and dissemination of EMIS outputs are often lower than anticipated.