Evaluation of the Efficiency of Junior High School Education in Prefectures of Japan Based on Data Envelopment Analysis

• Published in: Studies in Regional Science 2021, Vol.51(2), pp.323-336
• Main Authors: KIKUCHI, Kouhei, SUZUKI, Soushi
• Format: Article
• Language: eng ; jpn
• Subjects: Data Envelopment Analysis （DEA）; Educational Efficiency; Junior High School; Prefectural-Level
• ISSN: 0287-6256; 1880-6465
• DOI: 10.2457/srs.51.323

Nowadays, depopulation is a serious social concern in Japan.　The Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology have reported that the number of junior high schools and student have been decreasing since 1989.　Based on this situation, enhancement of the efficient operation of public education is required with depopulation and financial difficulties in the future.　Furthermore, an international survey on academic ability （PISA 2018） reported that the abilities of Japanese students in reading, mathematics and scientific literacy are declining.　Therefore, public education in Japan requires both efficient operations and improvements in academic ability.　Based on this background, the aim of this study was to provide an efficiency enhancement measure for education.　This study measured the efficiencies of junior high school education in each prefecture by means of Super Efficiency-Data Envelopment Analysis （DEA） using an Output Oriented Model, in which the Input items were:（I1） employment costs, （I2） educational activity costs, （I3） maintenance and operation costs, and （I4） capital expenditures, while the Output items were:（O1） academic ability in the national language and （O2） academic ability in mathematics （4I-2O analysis）.　Based on an efficiency score for each prefecture, we newly proposed and applied a statistical test for correlations between the efficiency score and input/output value, population density, and a number of students.　The analysis results suggest that increasing the number of mathematics teachers may have a positive effect on improving the educational efficiency.　They also suggest that high population density may also have a positive effect, so that forwarding measures and policies for a compact and networking city is also recommended as an effective measure.　Furthermore, we carried out a sensitivity analysis on the change in the number of inputs, especially focusing on with/without （I4） capital expenditures to test the robustness of the base ranking obtained from the DEA.　From the sensitivity analysis results, we noticed that Miyazaki was a relatively high scoring prefecture, but this efficiency score in the case of 3I （eliminated capital expenditure）-2O analysis appeared to decrease significantly.　In contrast, the results from Kanagawa, Hyogo, Aichi, Shizuoka, Ishikawa, Kyoto and Fukuoka Prefecture appears to yield stable and robust scores.JEL Classifications: C44, C61, I21, I28