Development of an Education Efficiency Index

Abstract

This study developed an Education Efficiency Index for 31 countries, both developed and developing, which can be used by everybody involved and interested in education such as teachers, lecturers and policy makers. The index is used to demonstrate that countries which invest deeply in education do not necessarily achieve the highest results in nationally recognised educational assessments like PISA, TIMSS and PIRLS. When countries do not invest sufficiently in education, the result is low scores in all subject areas compared to other countries. This index is the first of its kind that can be used by everybody interested in efficiency in education, to predict more accurately how students will perform in international assessments. It can also be used by anybody interested in efficiency measures in any area, once they have access to input and output data.