The Public Sector Efficiency in the Education Department

Abstract

Developing countries of the world are facing the problem of increased pressures on public balances due to high population growth rates, increasing poverty, unemployment, and rising debt (both domestic and foreign). In this era of globalization, it has become essential that public funds should be used efficiently.  This study investigates the public sector’s efficiency in the educational expenditure in the two major provinces of Pakistan. For this purpose we have used the data of Punjab and Sindh at district level. To evaluate the performance of each of the districts of these provinces, we have adopted the technique of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA).  The efficiency scores and rankings for districts in each of the provinces have been computed and analyzed. Education sector has been regarded as the priority social sector by almost all countries of the world; hence the findings of this study bring to light hidden facts regarding the public sector efficiency in a developing country like Pakistan where governments are forced to keep public expenditure at minimum.

Keyword: Education, public expenditure & efficiency.