Institutional effectiveness are given below:
Every institution, whether, a school or one meant for higher learning, has its own unique image among the larger society based on its quality, accomplishment and services offered. The policies, processes and climate of the institution, the quality of the faculty and the availability and utilization of such institutions also differ widely. To substantiate this point, let us look at two different institutions now.
Institution A
This is a college with arts, science and commerce faculties situated in Suburban Mumbai. The results of the college since past three years have been very poor with only 52% passing out every year on an average. The students and the wider community have a very poor opinion about the quality of teaching.
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The principal of the college has also not been able to command respect from the students, staff and the larger society every year, part of the grant-in-aid received by the college lapses due to non-utilization.
There is frequent absenteeism among the faculty and the students are seen more often outside the premises rather than inside the classrooms. Every year, there are at least four to five new vacancies because the faculty is always on the lookout for another job.
Institution B
This is another similar college. The students of this college usually top the university examinations. The principal and the faculty are known for their academic excellence in the wider society. The college is well-equipped with a very good library and laboratories as well as other equipments for administrative work.
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The college places high emphasis on attaining its goals through participative planning. There is very little absenteeism and almost no staff-turnover. Teachers and students express a sense of satisfaction with the college, its functioning and the results and are willing to put in extra efforts in maintaining the quality and standards of the college.
These two instances, very clearly differentiate between the two colleges, where, the first college may be termed as a poor college while the second one may be termed as good college. Using management terms, we may call these colleges as ineffective and effective colleges respectively.
Let us now look at the term ‘effectiveness of an educational institution’. Very often this term is used as a synonym of efficiency. But this is not so. An effective institution is one which “does the right things” whereas an efficient institution is one which “does things right”.
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In other words, an effective institution is one which attains its pre-determined goals and objectives. On the other hand, an efficient institution is one which attains its output at minimum costs in terms of money or time.
The next section describes the concept of institutional effectiveness in detail followed by dimensions and measures of institutional effectiveness, its theoretical framework, characteristics of effective institutions and ways of making institutions effective.