Educational efficiency pdf

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link. Need an account? Click here to sign up. Download Free PDF. A short summary of this paper. Download Download PDF. Translate PDF. Most importantly, Data Envelopment Analysis DEA technique is presented and then applied to the wide range of the EU and OECD countries to evaluate technical efficiency within the selected education sector in period.

The empirical results show that within a selected group of EU member states Denmark, Hungary and Portugal are seen as most efficient in primary education sector. In addition, some countries come very close to the frontier e.

Czech R. On the other hand, the least efficient countries are Belgium, Sweden and Croatia. The empirical findings also point out that the new EU member states are relatively more efficient than non-EU countries in the sample, however, they show relatively low efficiency against the old EU-member states.

An essential feature of knowledge is that it requires human capital educated persons for both its production and its application. Indeed, long-term economic growth of the economy rests with its capacity to increase productivity through rapid technological progress.

Therefore, the national system of education is the quintessential tool for the creation and application of knowledge.

However, as most of the countries are faced with increasing demands on their limited public resources, there is an increasing pressure to improve resource allocation and utilisation.

Accordingly, policy makers in a number of countries became increasingly concerned with measuring efficiency. With education expenditures comprising a relatively important amount of national income, the interest in examining whether such expenditures are cost-effective has increased, recently.

The importance of examining public sector expenditure efficiency is particularly pronounced for emerging market economies where public resources are normally insufficient.

When services are publicly provided, performance measurement becomes an inevitable management tool because when inefficiency continues, the constituents of that inefficient unit suffer. The government needs benchmarking tools to provide incentives to good performing sectors and to induce inefficient sectors to perform better.

However, the focus of the paper is not on how to cut public expenditures, but rather more on investigating potential reserves to increase the value for money of public spending, i. The paper is organized as follows. In the next section we present a brief literature review of measuring public education expenditure efficiency. Section 3 shows a theoretical background of non-parametric methodologies with special focus on Data Envelopment Analysis DEA and the specifications of the models.

Section 4 outlines the results of the non-parametric efficiency analysis of primary education sector. The final section provides concluding remarks. Studies include notably Fakin and Crombrugghe for the public sector, Gupta and Verhoeven for education and health in Africa, Clements for education in Europe, St. Aubyn , a, b for efficiency in providing health and education in OECD countries.

De Borger and Kerstens , and Afonso and Fernandes find evidence of spending inefficiencies for the local government sector. Additionally, Afonso et al. Other authors e.

Mandl et al. The country-clusters resulted are very similar. Southern European countries present low general and educational performance, the CEE countries show low general performance but high educational one, and the Northern European and Anglo-Saxon countries with high scores in both items although the differences among countries in the educational performance are high; e.

Luxembourg with a high macroeconomic score but fairly poor results for the effectiveness of its education system.

Additionally, a number of studies examine technical efficiency in education see also Castano and Cabanda, ; Grosskopf and Mourtray, ; Johnes, , ; Johnes and Johnes, ; Ng and Li, ; Cherchye et al. There are multiple techniques to calculate or estimate the shape of the efficiency frontier.

Most investigations aimed at measuring efficiency are based either on parametric or non- parametric methods. The main difference between the parametric and the non-parametric approach is that parametric frontier functions require the ex-ante definition of the functional form of the efficiency frontier. This technique is therefore primary data-driven. An alternative non-parametric technique that has recently started to be commonly applied to public expenditure analysis is Data Envelopment Analysis DEA.

Input inefficiencies show the degree to which inputs must be reduced for the inefficient country to lie on the 1 For an overview of non-parametric techniques see Simar and Wilson Output inefficiencies are the needed increase in outputs for the country to become efficient.

If a particular country either reduces its inputs by the inefficiency values or increases its outputs by the amount of inefficiency, it could become efficient; that is, it could obtain an efficiency score of one. The classification of any particular entity can be achieved by solving a linear program LP. Various types of DEA models can be used, depending upon the problem at hand. The DEA model we use can be distinguished by the scale and orientation of the model. If one cannot assume that economies of scale do not change, then a variable returns- to-scale VRS type of DEA model, the one selected here, is an appropriate choice as opposed to a constant-returns-to-scale, CRS model.

The way in which the DEA program computes efficiency scores can be explained briefly using mathematical notation adapted from Ozcan, X1 and Y1denote, respectively, the vectors of input and output values.

Units that lie on determine the surface are deemed efficient in DEA terminology. Units that do not lie on the surface are termed inefficient. Although DEA is a powerful optimization technique that can assess the performance of each country, it has certain limitations. When one has to deal with large numbers of inputs and outputs, and a small number of countries are under evaluation, the discriminatory power of the DEA is limited.

This is usually done by eliminating one of a pair of factors that are strongly positively correlated with each other. The specification of the outputs and inputs is a crucial first step in DEA, since the larger the number of outputs and inputs included in any DEA, the higher will be the expected proportion of efficient DMUs, and the greater will be the expected overall average efficiency Chalos, In the majority of studies using DEA, the data are analyzed cross-sectionally, with each decision making unit DMU — in this case the country — being observed only once.

However, the internal efficiency is decreasing as there is no increase in output indices Figure 1. The reason obviously lies in that which happens between input and output.

The reason is inadequate attention given to the processes that transform input into output. The computers are provided but do the teachers and students use them? If yes, how and for what? The process of using the computers is not paid adequate attention in schools. Thus negligence of process variables can be major cause of poor outcome of education system.

The researchers also support this argument. Students in CCE schools primary and upper primary did no better than students in the comparison group on either oral or written tests for Hindi or Mathematics James There is possibility that CCE is not implemented in a right manner in schools.

Making unannounced multiple visits to government primary schools across 20 States within India, 35, observations on teacher attendance were collected. Overall, In a study by Smith it is observed that teacher-led recitation, rote and repetition dominated the classroom discourse with little attention being paid to securing pupil understanding and no opportunity for students to interact Smith The problem with finding any conclusion about the process variables is lack of consistent and data disaggregated by gender, region, sector about these variables.

Further the process variables are not defined comprehensively. National University of Educational Planning and Administration has defined some of the process variables. However, there is a need to define as many as possible process variables. Another cause of poor quality of education lies in the poor understanding of contextual variables, especially context of students. The language of the students, their learning styles, their previous knowledge, their capacities, the type of intelligence students possess, needs of the students, aspirations of the students-all these elements are not given due consideration while teaching.

The researches have proved this. In several countries, educators and policy makers are attempting to change the way we measure the effectiveness of education from an emphasis on traditional inputs, such as course credits earned and hours spent in class to impacts or outcomes. We have only one outcome measure of education and that is literacy rate. The literacy rate of Maharashtra has improved in the last decade from However as per Mahatma Gandhi said, literacy is only beginning of education.

What do students learn, what cognitive, emotional competencies they develop as a result of ten years of schooling? Which skills school students acquire? Do the educated students are able to generate income for themselves and their family? Do the students develop as socially and politically responsible democratic citizens?

Do the educated people are able to live with a descent Standard of living? Such questions are unanswered. The reason is lack of defined outcome variables of education and consequently lack of data for it. National Curriculum Framework NCF has emphasized that the approaches such as constructivism, critical pedagogy, contextualized learning need to be followed in education. When children from poor households do enroll, they often perform badly, attend irregularly or drop out altogether.

Class, caste and gender also help determine which children are sent to school, and which will continue through the system. If Universal Primary Education is to become a reality in India, knowledge on how poor households make schooling decisions is crucial. Education systems should be designed in ways that spur attendance by disadvantaged groups. The non-relevance of school curriculum to the daily life and needs is the major reason of high drop out and low performance of tribal children in schools Vinoba Gautam, While the development planners rightly recognized that expansion of educational facilities has to be accompanied with significant improvements in quality and relevance of education at all levels, the outcome is quite disappointing Agarwal What is the solution?

Problem in the complex system such as education requires multitude of efforts to solve them. However, the immediate, cost effective and easy things that Government can do are given hereafter. I Deciding and monitoring the Indicators Modify Input Indicators to be monitored The input indicators that are monitored today give us the idea of quantity of inputs but not the quality of Inputs. We need to modify them so that we can have assessment of quality of Inputs.

Not monitored, hence not given due consideration by the implementers. The first task needs to be done is to define a system of process indicators and more importantly outcome long term impact indicators.

After defining the process indicators a system of collecting data about those indicators need to be put in place. Sample surveys of schools can be conducted each year. The data needs to be disaggregated by district, rural urban wise, gender wise, social group wise to identify areas and sectors that require special attention.

Monitoring process and output indicators Monitoring of the processes at all levels is a crucial factor. There are observations indicting that the teachers in remote area are either absent or if present hardly teach. The school processes need a vigorous monitoring.

All the obstacles in monitoring school and classroom processes need to be removed urgently. The major obstacles can be large number of vacant posts at block level, inconvenient transport facilities to the implementers and officers to reach at remote areas and lack of monitoring skills. The first two are policy level interventions while the third one is the issue of training. The block level officers need to be trained in what and how to monitor. Monitoring of processes and output rather than input is essential.

The officers who are monitoring need to be equipped with advance equipment such as tablets; smart phones so that the consistent records of monitoring could be maintained. A standard operating procedure SOP manual for monitoring officers can be developed. Surprise visits of officers definitely help, the frequency of such visits need to be increased. II Input output Framework Integrating Input-Process-Output framework in all educational institutions: The educational institutions at all levels from Mantralay to schools can prepare their annual functioning plan in the framework of Input-process-output and outcome.

Transferring the academic supervisory role from education authorities to heads of schools is now necessary Tyagi The Headmasters need to provide special training for this. Preparing input output framework of each district: Each district can decide their input output variables and find the internal efficiency each year and identify areas which require improvement. This has to be done in consultations with the stakeholders such as school HMs, teachers, experts in the district, NGOs and block education officers.

The DIETs can be trained for conducting such strategic plan workshops. III Contextualizing teaching learning IV Process of motivating the teachers Encouragement and freedom to teachers: The teacher is the agent of social change as envisioned in International Commission on Education in and many other seminal documents in education.

Motivating teachers is a critical need today. These teachers have the potential but the system has worn them out. The impact of absenteeism is exacerbated by the fact that the average primary school in India has a workforce of no more than three teachers. At a school for girls in rural Rajasthan, we observed this problem first hand: Of the eight teachers assigned, only five were present.

The three who were actually teaching were juggling eight different grades. The obvious reason — remuneration — does not appear to be a driver. In fact, both education experts and ordinary citizens argue that government-employed school teachers are paid relatively well. Indian primary-school teachers may not be underpaid, but some argue that they may be overworked. Another disheartening factor has been a highly bureaucratic administrative system that discourages bold decision making and makes implementation difficult.

This will enhance their motivation. To list a few-Schools may have computers but not functional. Schools may not have electricity and other infrastructure.