Issues%20in%20Education%20Public%20Expenditure%20Reviews

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Part 1

• Issues in Education Public Expenditure Reviews
• (Sue Berryman)

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Questions to consider in an Education PER

1. How much is spentand how much does government
   spend?
2. How does government finance?
3. What does government finance?

1. Does public spending protect equity?
2. Is the public getting its moneys worth?
3. How much is enough? Is spending adequate
   sustainable?

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Define the Sector

• Narrow
• ----------------------------
• One level type of educatione.g., public
  primary education

• Broad
• ----------------------------
• All levels and types of educatione.g.,
  public and private, academic and vocational
  secondary post-secondary

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Use data to isolate issues and issues to focus
data collection and analysis

• Issue Decentralization. Go after these
  questions in the guidelines.
• How does government finance?

How does government finance?
Does public spending protect equity?
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Issue How much is the country spending on
education?

• Actual, not planned, expenditures.
• Net of social protection expenditures delivered
  through schools.

MoE expenditures
Local expenditures
Donor funding
Other ministry expenditures
Private expenditures (households, employers)
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Issue Equity

• Public policies and public financing affect
  equity of education in obvious subtle ways.

Corruption favors rich
Merit-based scholarships favor rich
Share of consumption poor pay for school is often
disproportionate
Selection-based progression favors rich
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Efficiency of public spending

• Homework Example is the public getting its
  moneys worthi.e., are public resources being
  used efficiently and effectively?
• Four types of efficiency
• Allocative
• Technical
• Internal
• External

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Allocative Efficiency

1. Is the marginal dollar better spent on a
   different sector (e.g., roads)? How would you
   know?
2. Is the marginal dollar better spent on a
   different level of education (e.g., basic rather
   than tertiary education)? How would you know?
   (Returns to education? Ratios of unit costs for
   different levels of education?)

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Technical Efficiency

1. Big ticket items capital expenditures, labor,
   textbooks
2. Big drivers factors that affect enrollment
   numbers (demography, policies such as universal
   free primary education or redefining compulsory
   education from grade 8 to 10). What will these
   factors save? Cost?

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Technical Efficiency Capital

1. Cost-effectiveness of construction?
2. Rational basis for constructing new schools?
   Closing/consolidating under-used schools?
3. Transparent procurement of civil works?
4. Efficient use of school network e.g., class
   sizes that balance quality instruction with
   efficient use of capacity? Use of double shifts?
5. Downstream savings attributable to basic
   maintenance now?

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Cost Analysis of School Construction Options
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Technical Efficiency Labor

• Student/teacher ratios too high/too low?
• Student/non-teaching staff ratios too high/too
  low?
• Teacher teaching loads (class hours/week) too
  high/too low?
• Wages adequate to attract and retain teachers of
  required quality? Comparisons GDP per capita,
  average wage for a public sector technocrat,
  average wage for private sector workers with
  qualifications similar to those for teachers
  (labor force or household budget surveys)

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Technical Efficiency Textbooks

• Look for overloaded curricula that multiply
  number of required textbooks (and depress
  learning)
• Do textbook policies protect equity and
  efficiencye.g., textbook rental schemes? Re-use
  schemes?

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Internal Efficiency Dropout, Repetition,
Completion Rates, Learning Outcomes

• Dropout rates usually best measured with
  household surveys.
• Repetition rates huge and extremely costly in
  some regions, e.g., LAC. How much could the
  system save if it got education done right the
  first time?
• Completion rates share of student cohort that
  completes a given segment of school (e.g., lower
  secondary) that should confer a coherent set of
  skills?
• Learning outcomes relative to standards? Check
  international assessments! Poor outcomes imply
  need to invest in quality. High variances in
  outcomes imply need to invest in equitable
  quality.

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Comparative Performance of 15 Year Olds on OECDs
PISA (2000)
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External Efficiency Labor Market Payoffs

• Look for
• Learning assessments that are linked to
  employers skill needs (e.g., PISA, IALS)
• Returns to education
• Employment, unemployment, labor force
  participation rates
• Tracer studies
• Poor payoffs may imply a weak economy or the need
  to invest in realigning competencies that schools
  produce to the labor market.

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Data such as these tell you where money should be
spent and where it can be saved. They guide the
selection of scenarios and of the assumptions
that enter into them.