The efficiency of public schools: the case of Kuwait

Abstract

This paper investigates the technical, allocative and economic efficiency of public schools in Kuwait over four levels of schooling (kindergartens, primary, intermediate and secondary) and two periods (1999/00 and 2004/05) using data envelopment analysis (DEA). Mean pure technical efficiency varies between 0.695 and 0.852 across all levels of education; the majority of schools at kindergarten, primary and intermediate levels are operating at a point where returns to scale are increasing; and there are considerable cost efficiencies to be gained. In a second stage analysis of the determinants of efficiency, teacher salary and the proportion of teaching staff who are Kuwaiti are highly significant in explaining school efficiency at all levels. The former has a positive effect and the latter a negative effect. Allgirls schools have significantly higher efficiency than all-boys schools. There is limited evidence that geographical location affects efficiency, and this may be a consequence of differences between regions in terms of affluence or density of population.

Efficiency in education: a review of literature and a way forward

“…Urban/rural area (location) Barrow (1991), Cubbin and Zamani (1996), , Duncombe et al (1997), Bradley et al (2001), Millimet and Collier (2008), Naper (2010), Agasisti (2011a, Lee (2011), Haelermans and, , , Misra et al (2012), Burney et al (2013), Deutsch et al (2013).…”

“…Gronberg et al (2012) argue persuasively that value-added analysis (which measures changes in student performance from one year to the next) yields better output measures for efficiency analysis than does relying on levels measures of performance. Butler and Monk (1985), Jesson et al (1987), Smith and Mayston (1987), Mayston and Jesson (1988), Beasley (1990), Callan and Santerre (1990), Barrow (1991), McCarty and Yaisawarng (1993), Bonesrønning and Rattsø (1994), Sinuany et al (1994), Beasley (1995), Cubbin and Zamani (1996), (2006a) (2006c) (2008), , Athanassopoulos and Shale (1997), Heshmati and Kumbhakar (1997), Madden et al (1997), Haksever and Muragishi (1998), Kirjavainen and Loikkanen (1998), Ray and Mukherjee (1998), Mancebón and Bandres (1999), Ruggiero and Vitaliano (1999) Houck et al (2010), Kantabutra and Tang (2010), Katharaki and Katharakis (2010), Kempkes and Pohl (2010), Khalili et al (2010), Rayeni and Saljooghi (2010), Sarrico et al (2010), Agasisti (2011b), Kuah and Wong (2011), Thanassoulis et al (2011), Wolszczak-Derlacz and Parteka (2011), Misra et al (2012), Burney et al (2013), Haelermans and Ruggiero (2013), , Lu and Chen (2013), …”

“…Observed in: Bessent and Bessent (1980), Charnes et al (1981), Bessent et al (1982), Diamond and Medewitz (1990), Ray (1991), Deller and Rudnicki (1993), Bonesrønning and Rattsø (1994), Thanassoulis and Dustan (1994), Jimenez and Paqueo (1996), , Kirjavainen and Loikkanen (1998), Mancebón and Bandres (1999), Mancebón and Mar-Molinero (2000), McEwan and Carnoy (2000), Bradley et al (2001) Khalili et al (2010), Naper (2010), Sarrico et al (2010), Agasisti (2011a, Mongan et al (2011, , , , Johnes et al (2012), Kirjavainen (2012), Mancebón et al (2012), Misra et al (2012), Portela et al (2012), Burney et al (2013), Haelermans and Ruggiero (2013), Aristovnik and Obadic (2014), Blackburn et al (2014), Brennan et al (2014). Education system (country or multi-country) levels studies…”

Operational Research in education

“…DEA and related non-parametric methods continue to be used to derive measures of efficiency in all sectors of education, including: kindergartens and primary schools (Mancebón and Mar Molinero 2000;Burney et al 2013); secondary schools (Bradley et al 2001;Ramanathan 2001;Waldo 2007;Mancebón and Muñiz 2008;Portela and Camanho 2010;Mancebón et al 2012;Portela et al 2012;Haelermans and Ruggiero 2013;Essid et al 2014;Podinovski et al 2014); education administrative areas (Smith and Mayston 1987;Ray 1991;Thanassoulis and Dunstan 1994;Ruggiero et al 1995;Ruggiero 1996;Grosskopf et al 1999;Ruggiero 1999b;Grosskopf and Moutray 2001;Fukuyama and Weber 2002;Rassouli-Currier 2007;Ruggiero 2007;Ouellette and Vierstraete 2010); post-compulsory but pre-higher education (Bradley et al 2010;Johnes et al 2012); and universities (Beasley 1990;Mar Molinero 1996;Giménez and Martínez 2006;Fandel 2007;Dehnokhalaji et al 2010;Thanassoulis et al 2011;Duh et al 2012;Bayraktar et al 2013;De Witte et al 2013). DEA has been used to assess efficiency of individual academic departments or programmes within an institution (Colbert et al 2000;Kao and Liu 2000;…”

The Relative Efficiencies of Research Universities of Science and Technology in China: Based on the Data Envelopment Analysis and Stochastic Frontier Analysis

“…DEA continues to be used to derive measures of efficiency in all sectors of education (Johnes, 2015), including kindergartens, primary schools (Burney & Johnes, 2013), secondary schools (Haelermans & Witte, 2012), education administrative areas, postcompulsory but pre-higher education and universities (Bayraktar, Tatoglu & Zaim, 2013;Witte, Rogge, Cherchye & Puyenbroeck, 2012), especially after 1980 (Berbegal Mirabent & Solé Parellada, 2012). According to the finding of the scholar, the outcomes of DEA could provide valuable information supporting the management of higher education and describe the development possibilities in these areas (Nazarko & Šaparauskas, 2014).…”