Performance Management issues differ from one organization to another as the core business dynamics are often different according to the varying nature of businesses
When we consider schools, we need to appreciate the fact that they are not on the standard platform of producing and delivering goods/services to the people and hence far away from the concepts of managing demand and supply. Schools are service oriented organization that aim at providing a primary platform to the students to help them grow towards the path of success and excellence. Performance Management in schools is not that easy at it may seem. A school has to cater to the large number of students, deliver a number of courses and deal with other related factors so that they can achieve the ultimate goal of serving the society better.
For performance management in schools KPIs can be utilized in the form of a balanced scorecard to align the processes with the objective of the school. In schools KPIs can be configured under four major perspectives namely, Resource Deployment, Academics and Satisfaction, Performance and, Education and Learning. Resource Deployment Perspective shows how well the resources of the school are being utilized with the help of KPIs like % increase in overall budget, level of spending on books and other educational resources, average cost per student, etc. Academics and Satisfaction Perspective takes into account KPIs such as % of parents that are satisfied with education programs and services offered, teaching skill satisfaction level and student/teacher ratio. Performance Perspective helps in judging the performance of the school with the help of KPIs like graduation rate, attendance rate, dropout rate, etc. Finally, Education and Learning Perspective includes KPIs like number of extra-curricular activities con duc
ted per semester, % of International students and % of Ethnic Minority students.
A grim challenge that school authorities experience today relates to the social security of students and its staff. Safeguarding the students and staff from events like bullying and violence, is one of their key concern. Retaining the experienced and knowledgeable staff members of the school is another issue with which the school authorities must deal with utmost care. High turnover rate for teachers and dropout rates for student is not at all a good sign for the school management. The lack of funds is always a key issue for schools, so finding the new sources of funds for the school is also a difficult task. Maintaining and meeting high level of education for the students with emphasis on co-curricular activities is what the school has to deal with effectively. Adherence to the benchmarks set by the Government and high expectation level of the parents, must be dealt with great care.
KPIs help in keeping a check on the key issues that can really affect the performance of a school. KPIs arranged in a balanced scorecard can be assigned with values that can be used as benchmarks to measure the performance for a particular time period. By assigning weights to the KPIs, schools can indicate the areas that need focused attention of the authorities. KPIs like dropout rate of students must be kept at minimum or zero level by providing high level of education facilities to them. Similarly regular training needs to be given to the staff to enhance their skill level.
To sum it all, the goal of schools to impart high quality of education in order to meet the growing needs of the society can be justifiably supported by KPIs which provides a path on which they can progress for betterment.