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Schools Need Marketing

[EUROREPORT plus, July-August 2007]

 

 

Primary schools have problems surviving on the money which they receive from the state according to the normative funding per pupil. So they need to look for efficiency and learn from each other.  Martin Kóňa talked to the project manager of the citizens’ association “European Centre of Management”, Dušan Šamudovský, about the project of primary school benchmarking.

 

  • How did the primary school benchmarking project come about?

We carry out various process analyses and surveys which increase the performance of organisations in the commercial sector, and we decided to propose this service to local government, too. In order for the benefit to be most direct, we decided to choose one of the most delicate agendas which towns deal with: primary schools. Last year, 47 schools from twelve towns in Slovakia participated in this project.  We prepared a set of indicators which helped us compare the schools. There were 49 indicators and they were focused above all on the area of costs, for examples the costs per pupil, the costs per employee, the costs per cubic metre of heated surface area and so on. Another group was composed of performance indicators, i.e. how many employees are needed to ensure individual operations in the school system. In August last year, the collection of entry data was made. Based on these, we calculated individual indicators and provided them to schools. We presented the results at a seminar in Banská Bystrica in September 2006, where we invited the representatives of towns and schools.

   

  • Are you going to continue with this project?

Based on the feedback from primary schools, we judged that the interest from the schools themselves is great enough for us to continue the benchmarking. We brought together the strengths of two citizens’ associations, the European Centre of Management and Tree of Life, and together we created a new set of indicators. We tried to adapt to the methodology of the Ministry of Education and thus to facilitate the work for schools. We collect data which the schools must provide to the ministry too according to the directive. So at the moment there aren’t 49 indicators, but almost seventy. The range of indicators has also become broader; it is no longer just a question of economic aspects, but also of quality.

 

The number of primary schools has also increased; at present, 79 are involved in the project, which makes up a broad database for future use. The most significant change was the creation of a software application for collecting and assessing the data, developed by Centire as its main partner. This application allows data to be entered online 24 hours a day and the indicators entered are automatically displayed in the shape of tables and graphs. In September, we want to organise again a similar seminar to the one which took place last year. We want to give schools the opportunity to exchange experiences of what they are doing well and badly. 

  

  • What are the sources of financing? Do schools have money for such analyses?

Schools receive this assessment free of charge. At the moment, money is being drawn from funds which the two main partners provided for this project at the beginning. The project can be influenced in a fundamental way by the source of financing and the schools’ interest. If these two courses can be met, the project can continue indefinitely. Any Slovak primary school can join in this project. The advantage is that you can access your data assessment online at any time.

  

  • Where do schools have the most problems and what do they most need to work on?

Despite the fact that the results fluctuate, which is reflected on the quality of teaching provided or on the success rate of graduates, we discovered that money is behind everything. It is energy which determines the whole school’s economy. Together with salaries, energy costs make up schools’ largest cost item. This is a case of communicating vessels: the higher energy rates I have, the more difficult it is for me to pay for quality when providing education. I try to compensate with quantity, because schools make their living mainly from the normative funding per pupil, and this can be the path to their undoing. At present, schools in energy efficient buildings do the best. When schools resolve this problem, they can then devote themselves to their so-called “core business”. However, the sad truth is that schools, mainly in smaller villages, cannot survive due to high energy demands.
 

  • So we can expect further closures of primary schools?

I think so. At the moment, the first wave has passed, bearing in mind that there is also a demographic influence which has already culminated in some places, and others are still waiting for a large fall in pupil numbers, and in some regions the numbers are even rising. Unfortunately, a second wave will probably pass soon, regardless of our benchmarking and of schools’ attempts to take the necessary measures based on it.

 
§    Can it be said which regions have the highest quality schools because of demographic indicators?
At the beginning, we tried to do this, but we did not find large regional influences. Large differences depend more on the size of the school. Of course, the situation is very individual and cannot be generalised. In any case, the conjectures are best in towns with over 15 thousand inhabitants. The best values are achieved in medium-sized towns with two or three schools, because they can compare themselves to each other. According to our results the quality of schools fluctuates in large towns.
 
§    Do you consider the normative funding per pupil to be sufficient?
In general, the money directed into schools, and not only primary schools, is below standard in this country. The fact that there is a lack of funds has only one positive effect; this positive part is that this deficiency has motivated headmasters to look for other resources. Many schools have become active and their income from business activities is growing rapidly, such as the rental of their premises and so on. They have become used to taking advantage of various other forms of funding, such as regional funds or European funds. New forms of management are being created in the leadership of schools, which is certainly of benefit. Unfortunately, schools often turn to these reserves to cover operational costs. These should be covered by the per pupil funding and schools should use additional revenue to improve quality.
 
§    So what should the school management focus on to make sure the school survives?
To resolve the state of the buildings in which the schools are located, not only from the point of view of energy, but also of safety. And devote themselves to marketing. A school which doesn’t find a tool to make it stand out will not survive. Demography clearly shows that the times we had will not come back again. Only those schools will survive which are able to display quality in an objective way and know how to stand out from the others. Schools should carry out a survey of what the parents of children in the given location require. In some places, it could be an emphasis on languages, elsewhere an emphasis on various cultural activities and so on. In other places, it could be a case of pragmatic things, such as parking places. There is no universal solution; each school must find its own way.

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