Conference Agenda

This paper explores the complexities of assessing educational performance and efficiency in the context of education governance. We propose a novel perspective on how governing features of educational systems influence their efficiency, focusing on the key features of public bodies responsible for local education management in Peru, known as UGELs. We characterize the educational production function using three inputs: planning conditions, human resources, and accountability mechanisms; and two outputs: student achievement and educational progress. Our efficiency estimation utilizes Robust Free Disposal Hull, Robust Data Envelopment Analysis, and Stochastic Non-parametric Envelopment approaches, leveraging unique government data from 2014. Additionally, we explore potential factors like infrastructure and internet access that could improve UGELs’ efficiency through conditional DEA analysis. Our findings highlight the need for nuanced methodologies in evaluating educational performance and reveal a significant gap in existing literature. This paper addresses this gap by offering a comprehensive evaluation framework, emphasizing the importance of thorough assessments for gauging educational institution efficiency. As policymakers increasingly rely on evidence-based decision-making, our research provides valuable insights that can inform and shape education policy decisions, making it a significant contribution to the field of education policy and governance

Methodology

Selected methodological approaches for implementing efficiency estimation: robust and conditional DEA, robust FDH, and StoNED techniques. All these approaches belong to the frontier category, aiming to estimate efficiency by quantifying the deviation or distance from the frontier represented by the best-performing units.

Findings

The study found most UGELs had higher FDH efficiency scores compared to DEA and StoNED, indicating a more efficient transformation of inputs into outputs. High educational achievement did not necessarily equate to efficiency. Infrastructure quality and internet access played significant roles in determining UGELs' performance. The study provides a nuanced understanding of efficiency in education provision at the UGEL level, highlighting the importance of considering multiple performance dimensions and the impact of environmental characteristics.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been through a bumpy democratic process since the advent of its independence from the Belgian colonisation. Since 1960, the country has, in numerous occasions, endeavoured to establish and practice a political governance that promotes democracy but efforts have always been marred by many challenges. On the one hand, democracy is characterised by responsive and responsible governance that creates an environment that promotes abidance to the rule of law, respect for human rights and regime change through electoral processes. On the other hand, political governance is considered to be a process that allows the involvement of various actors in decision-making particularly when it comes policy formulation. It suffices to say that democratic governance and political governance reinforce each other and if well implemented, they can create conditions for the establishment of a stable and peaceful society, and above all, they allow a country to find a path for stability and a durable socio-economic development. The DRC embarked on the democratisation process throughout a famous speech pronounced by Marechal Mobutu on 24 April 1990. President Mobutu was at the realm of power for more than three decades and he ruled the country relying on a regime of a single political party. In the past three decades, the DRC has taken numerous initiatives to establish systems and structures that promote the implementation of democratic and political governance. The path has been characteristics by ups and downs. This implies that the DRC has recorded positive results in some areas but it has also been faced with numerous setbacks that negatively affected the process of putting the country on the path of democracy and economic growth. After a long period of political tensions, wars, rebellions and social unrests, in 2001, the DRC embarked on a journey for to establish a democratic regime through effective political governance, thus, with the support of the African Union (AU), the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the international community. Over two decades have passed, therefore, this paper intends to explore the complexities that have affected the effective attainment of governance imperatives which would have allowed the DRC to establish structures and systems to fast-track the democratisation process. To do so, the paper will examine the progress made by the DRC in meeting some of the democratic and political governance indicators. A critical review of available literature will be used and it will be coupled with the analysis of available data that relate to the country’s performance in this specific area.