Evaluating the performance of primary schools in India: evidence from West Bengal
International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management
ISSN: 1741-0401
Article publication date: 9 March 2021
Issue publication date: 16 August 2022
Abstract
Purpose
In the context of India, this article proposes an integrated multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) regression-based methodology to evaluate input-level performance of the schools and investigate the impact of this performance along with contextual factors, i.e. medium of instruction and location of the school, on the school's output level performance, i.e. student pass rate.
Design/methodology/approach
First, Shannon entropy-based approach is applied for the weight assignment to different parameters. Then, integrated VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS)-based methodology is devised to measure the input-level performance of a school. Finally, multiple linear regression (MLR) analysis is incorporated to study the effect of input-level performance and above-mentioned contextual factors on the school's output-level performance.
Findings
Proposed methodology is applied to assess the input-level performance of 82,930 primary and secondary schools of West Bengal, India. All the factors have a significant impact on boys' pass rate, whereas only input-level performance and location of the school have a significant influence on the girls' pass rate.
Practical implications
The entropy-based approach highlights the importance of scientific weight assignment. Integrated MCDM demonstrates the significance of aggregation due to the variation in scores related to input-level performance across the methods. Regression analysis facilitates the exploration of determinants influencing the output-level performance of the schools.
Originality/value
This work depicts a holistic picture of the performance measurement system of the schools. It encompasses scientific weight assignment to the evaluation criteria, integrated input-level performance assessment of the schools and investigation into the effect of this performance, as well as other contextual factors on the output level performance.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the associate editor and the anonymous referees of the journal for their extremely useful suggestions to improve the quality of the paper. This work is funded by Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (Grant No-RP:SPSEWB:AEAUDISED/3648/2015-16).
Citation
Adhikari, A., Bhattacharyya, S., Basu, S. and Bhattacharya, R. (2022), "Evaluating the performance of primary schools in India: evidence from West Bengal", International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Vol. 71 No. 7, pp. 2630-2658. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPPM-07-2020-0374
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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