Staff Assignment Problem

(Case Study at Mampong-Akuapem Presby Senior High School)

Source: Simon, K. (2012). Case Study at Mampong-Akuapem Presby Senior High School.

The Assistant Headmaster Administration or departmental head has the problem of providing teachers for
the six subjects offered by his department at the highest possible level of educational quality. He has a
posting for six graduate teachers from Ghana Education Service (GES) who can handle at least one of the
six subjects. After appropriate introspection and evaluation he has arrived at the following relative ratings
(100 = basic rating) regarding the ability of each instructor to teach the six subjects, respectively, as shown
in Table 1.
Table 1.
Subjects
Teacher Social
Science English Math Biology Physics
Science
A 87 78 81 79 84 80
B 82 83 76 82 78 73
C 80 78 77 76 83 69
D 86 81 87 70 77 78
E 79 86 83 75 85 77
F 83 77 82 80 84 76

The problem now is how the head should assign his staff to the courses so as to maximize the educational
quality in his department. The aim is to determine the best assignment policy in the institution so that the
institution gets the best results of student’s performance from the various staff assign to the various
subjects. The general practice is that most establishments do not have a well structured plan on how to
assign subject teachers to the various subjects. Teachers are assigned by the discretion of Assistant
Headmaster Administration or Departmental Heads. These methods are faulted, and are basically
inefficient.
Data on the relative regrets were also gathered as shown in Table 2.
Subjects
Teacher Social
Science English Math Biology Physics
Science
A 13 22 19 21 16 20
B 18 17 24 18 22 27
C 20 22 23 24 17 31
D 14 19 13 30 23 22
E 21 14 17 25 15 23
F 17 23 18 20 16 24
Solution:
Since it is a minimization problem, the regret data will be used whereas the worst-case regret is aimed to
be minimized subsequently, maximizing the educational quality in the department.
13 22 19 21 16 20
18 17 24 18 22 27
20 22 23 24 17 31
14 19 13 30 23 22
21 14 17 25 15 23
17 23 18 20 16 24

Step 1: subtract the minimum of each row from all the entries of the respective rows
0 9 6 8 3 7
1 0 7 1 5 10
3 5 6 7 0 14
1 6 0 17 10 9
7 0 3 11 1 9
1 7 2 4 0 8

Step 2: Subtract the minimum of each column from all the entries of the respective column
0 9 6 7 3 0
1 0 7 0 5 3
3 5 6 6 0 7
1 6 0 16 10 2
7 0 3 10 1 2
1 7 2 3 0 1

Step 3: zero assigning.

0 9 6 7 3 0
1 0 7 0 5 3
3 5 6 6 0 7
1 6 0 16 10 2
7 0 3 10 1 2
1 7 2 3 0 1
The number of lines drawn N, N=5 which is equal to the matric order six thus the optimal assignment has not
yet been found.

Step 4: Take the smallest uncovered value and subtract if from all uncovered entries and add it to the entry
at the intersecting lines
0 10 6 7 4 0
1 1 7 0 6 3
1 5 5 5 0 6
1 7 0 16 11 2
6 0 2 9 1 1
0 7 1 2 0 0
The number of lines drawn N, N=6 which is equal to the matric order six thus the optimal assignment has
already been found.

Step 5: Zero assigning

0 10 6 7 4 0
1 1 7 0 6 3
1 5 5 5 0 6
1 7 0 16 11 2
6 0 2 9 1 1
0 7 1 2 0 0

The optimum assignment in which the regrets are minimized and the educational quality is maximized.
Teacher Subject Regrets
A Physics 20
B Math 18
C Biology 17
D English 13
E Science 14
F Social Science 17