Financial Indicators Applied to the Management of Elementary Education Institutions

Abstract

This study aimed to build-up a set of financial performance indicators that were calculated, analyzed, and then evaluated by managers of educational institutions. That evaluation was performed to verify if the indicators, used as benchmarking, would allow the self-evaluation and would indicate the need of strategic changes. In order to define the indicators, we made a bibliographical review which selected a set of indicators to support the management. The necessary data to calculate those indicators were obtained starting from the accounting analysis, in the period of 2007 and 2008, of 39 schools, being 23 public municipal, 5 public state and 11 private institutions, all belonging to the metropolitan area of Porto Alegre. Once such calculations were made, those indicators were tabulated, then, they were introduced to the managers of the researched institutions. The managers’ evaluation was in the sense to verify which indicators would be relevant when taking a decision in the administration of the schools that they managed. Through this process, it was possible to systematize a set of indicators, considered to be the most appropriate, to the manager of schools and that offers the comparability of a school in relation to the others of the same group (public or private) and of same level and kind of education, and between them and with benchmarking value. In terms of magnitude of the calculated indicators, it was possible to detect significantly difference among schools, indicating that the management, considering those values, could improve the financial performance of the schools.