The Hindu Business Line : Balanced scorecard makes better grade

It's unusual to hear about the implementation of consulting methodologies such as 5-S for stinking railway platforms of India, Kaizen for ever-crowded panchayat offices, or business process re-engineering in public health centres with interminable queues. One such ailing sector in India which can experiment with the balanced scorecard system is primary education.

Unwarranted expectations from urbanites drive their children towards a rigorous academic performance even at a very young age. In India, evaluation is based on a widely accepted grading or a percentile system, which is indeed a good yardstick. But is curriculum-based performance evaluation alone sufficient for the smooth integration of students into society?

Does our educational assessment system accurately measure the talents of younger students? Obviously not, as one often comes across strange correlations drawn between the poor early academic performance vis-à-vis professional success of popular personalities even.

The global consulting framework called `Balanced Scorecard' can be converged successfully with the formal education system to replace the conventional marks-based assessment. Balanced scorecard is a "multi-dimensional framework" used widely in Indian organisations to effectively percolate the expectations of key stakeholders (customers and shareholders) to all layers of the organisation. It is a four-dimension assessment framework involving profits, customer satisfaction, learning/ growth and innovations.

The profit objective of organisations is akin to the traditional mark- or percentile-based ranking in schools. It is undoubtedly a robust system for measuring academic performance. There are negligible motivation mechanisms in schools for nurturing large-scale innovations and the existing ranking process does not rate the innovativeness of a student. But MNCs expect managers to think innovatively though their training has not prepared them to.

What is learning?

Learning can be thought of as cognitive recall, or interpretation of the learnt content. The prevalent grading procedure demands "mere reading and short-lived reproduction of content". Even a qualified geography teacher may not be able to demonstrate pictorially the difference between `the Earth and the Atmosphere'It is usual, even essential, for an organisation to monitor its growth path carefully. So, too, personal growth calls for continuous tracking of a student throughout his school career. The present assessment system does not reflect the previous years' performance, as do MIS reports of companies, which compare performance year on year, or month to month.

More importantly, the growth of a student needs to be assessed against a broader perspective, taking into consideration physical, emotional and social aspects too. A few forward thinking schools have indeed progressed on this front, though the assessment ratings are not reflected in the student's progress card.

Objectivity

Stakeholder satisfaction index by key stakeholders in society is a neglected subject in the student evaluation process. It is just a one-way process of rank assessment by teachers alone and parent's rating of the child is not captured in the "Progress Card". The index needs to include non-academic parameters such as communication effectiveness, networking and inter-personal skills, and awareness of social and environmental responsibilities.

Such an index would help eliminate stereotyping of students and help them evolve from a self-centric approach to acquire a broader vision, addressing social dimensions.

(The author is a Chennai-based management consultant.)

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