Improving Efficiency of Affordable Private Schools through a School Ratings Tool
Moderated by Aditya Kumar, Program Manager- Gray Matters Capital
Affordable Private Schools (APS) are a thriving reality throughout the developing world. It has emerged as a parallel system in formal education that sustains by charging a small fee to students which could be borne by economically disadvantaged families. These schools are demand driven whereby families opt for them under the perception of providing quality education for their children.
The School Ratings Tool was initiated to provide low-income schools with an independent assessment of their performance in hope that school owners will make informed decisions towards improving their institutions while positively impacting the learning levels of children. The rating is developed with a long term view of providing a way to triangulate the parent’s knowledge on differential quality levels offered by various schools in the neighborhood.
The rating tool focuses on the following six aspects:
• Strategy & Governance: management practices, growth plans, vision and decision making processes;
• Learning Environment: class room transaction process, teacher engagement, inclusive & democratic processes in class room and quality of teaching;
• Parent Engagement: parents perspective of school offerings, feedback loop, school involvement and relationship with school management;
• Teacher Competencies in English and Mathematics and their thoughts and feedback on the school.
• Student Performance: a dipstick version on student achievement in English and Mathematics while capturing the past performance in board examination
• Financial and Institutional Growth: cash flow, exit and entry points for revenue, priority areas of spending and general financial health of the institution.
A pilot attempt at rating APS has been initiated in Hyderabad where 35 schools have been rated on various parameters covering specified norms for quality education as well as learning outcomes of students. To learn more about the Ratings Tool and view the Ratings Report, please click here
In this context, we invite members to reflect and share their insights on the following:
• What are the best methods to solicit school participation in the school rating process?
• How should schools be supported to use the results of the rating to improve their efficiency?
• Should creating benchmarks be an essential part of the rating process?
• How can we effectively engage with parents to ensure they benefit from the rating report?
This discussion would be moderated by Aditya Kumar who works with Gray Matters Capital, coordinating their school rating initiative in India. Aditya has been working in both, the public and low income private education space for over nine years in various parts of Andhra Pradesh.
Help schools prioritize quality over infrastructure
Point well made Sudakshina. If we look at the spending patterns of our school, we do notice that the schools have made major budgetary allocations towards improving infrastructure facilities, attaining recognition, advertisement & marketing areas. This shows that that the schools do sit on surplus cash where a proper education & awareness program can entice them to invest in quality improvement activities like rating. Its important for the rating product to help the schools to prioritize on quality over infrastructure issues. I see some possible ways of creating a need and enhancing the demand for the rating product from the schools.
1) Identifying and highlighting the linkages between a rating exercise and increment in quality and school revenues.
2) A concerted effort with the school managers to form an action group post rating exercise to understand and act on the feedback received through the rating exercise.
3) Though this certainly doesn’t fall under the purview of the rating, but adding information on what kind of investment would lead to what kind of change in education quality and school revenues would help drum up the support for the rating exercise form the school managers.
On the other side outcomes still seem to be a key motivating factor for schools to sign up for the rating. I think from the long term perspective its important to move the school managers away from this approach and focus on the processes of the rating to receive constant feedback and improve the school.
Ratings to Improve the Efficiency of Affordable Private Schools
The points made by Tarun and Aditya seem to be in conjunction with each other. While the concern on the costs and use of rating from the school's perspective is valid and real, from a vantage point, it is not the capacity of the schools to afford the rating which is an issue since the school incurs large expenditures on processes that are priority for it.
It is important to educate school management on the utility of ratings to voluntarily adopt it as an integral part of the school institution. The outcome of rating is not so important as the scope it offers for developing the school as a school of repute. The perception on rating needs to move beyond its outcome. Hence the necessity to create the appropriate context in which rating should be perceived becomes important. Involving parents is an useful intervention as they are primary stakeholders who would offer valid and relevant suggestions on strenghtening the identified aspects of the school.
What do you do with a rating report is critical
As opposed to a business as usual situation where the school manager if often bogged down with operational rubble,the rating is certainly a right & significant step towards quality. This will not only address the information gaps but also drive the parents & schools managers towards an action oriented agenda. The questions raised by Tarun on affordability and utility issues do seem very valid and pertinent from the school’s point of view.
Affordability Issues: Currently the price of the rating tool accounts to around 1% of revenues of a typical affordable school. The affordable schools have shown willingess to adapt by investing in quality improvement areas like labs and libraries. Therefore I do not see any reluctance to invest in a quality initiative like rating which costs a fraction of what would a lab cost to the school. The investment in rating does seem to be affordable especially when corresponded to their investments of 150000 INR in buying cctv to monitor class rooms. The price point does seemt o be with in the reach of an affordable school irrespective of subsidy which is intended to help them prioritize rating over other investments.
The rating tool is offered on a declining subsidy basis to create the initial traction and make it extremely affordable for the school owners. Agreed. The subsidy may create an inflated market opportunity but the fact that the school managers are paying some cost shows that they see value in rating exercise.
Another question that frequently comes up is what happens when a particular school is awarded a negative rating ? I do not see this as an end of the road for school. After undergoing the rating process the school will always be in a win- win situation.In case of a positive rating you have an opportunity to say that your claims on quality have been validated by an external evaluator. In case of a not so positive rating then you always know what are those issues that are bringing your school down. Rating is a reflection and not a recommendation exercise to advise on how schools should move up in growth trajectory. Mirror only shows our face and doesn’t advise us on what needs to be done to improve our looks.
The schools may not travel anywhere with just a rating report. The schools need to form a core group involving parents, teachers and students to come up with an action agenda to move UP the school in THE quality pyramid. The rating report helps the stake holders in prioritising issues in improving their quality. The rating itself cannot be a driver on its own weight. I think what differentiates is what they choose to do with the rating report.
I think Tarun and Rukmini made a valid point by emphasising on the quality of the tool. This can make or break our case in schools. The Weights for various indicators should represent the information needs of various stakeholders. The tool should be as robust and customised as possible to let these stakeholders know what they want to know about the schools.
I think it’s a brilliant idea to propose for involving parents to administer the tool in identifying the right school for their children.
Utility of ratings
I would like to stress on the utility of the ratings to start with. It is a great idea to have ratings. But why would any school participate in a rating exercise? Especially, if the school itself has to pay for it. We are also talking about budget schools which are anyways financially constrained.
There are 2 aspects to the ratings issue:
1. Cost: A few questions that would guide the costing decision: Is there any way in which the costs can be brought down substantially for the APS schools to afford the rating? Can the tool itself be made so simple that it can be administered by the school stake holders especially the parents (almost every school has a Parent Teacher Association)? Can State or private players step in to subsidize the rating process and facilitate the pickup of ratings which will in turn drive up the numbers and bring down the rating costs?
2. Utility: What is the benefit of the rating process to the school itself? Does the school feel that, if it is paying for the rating and if it is getting low rating, the money is wasted? What is the plan of action after the rating scores are in? Does a good rating ensure that the school will get loan on a preferred rate from a bank or other financial institution? Does the school get help in preparing a road-map for improving quality and reaching from say a C- rating to an A+ rating?
I would like to add one more aspect to discussion on ratings. I feel that the larger goal of the entire exercise should be taken into consideration while devising individual initiatives/interventions. Rukmini Banerjee of Pratham makes a very valid point here. According to her, the tool is more important than the actual outcome of the exercise. Her point is that if the tool is made so simple that the parents can undertake the ratings by themselves, it achieves the purpose. She feels that almost all the parents are interested to know how the school is performing on certain basic parameters. This exercise can be then taken up by the entire spectrum of schools be it government, aided, un-aided, private and the scores can be compared across standard parameters.