فصلنامه تعلیم و تربیت
سال بیست و نهم شماره 3 (پیاپی 115، پاییز 1392)

To assess the efficiency of Guidance schools of Shahrbaabak during the 2007-2008 academic year, the data on five factors, as input, and two factors as output were collected from the City's Bureau of Education, and analyzed. Results show that the efficiency is only close to 81%, meaning that resources were not used optimally. In identifying the inefficient units, it was discovered that they were sensitive to the used model and factors. When the model was changed to that of BCC, and the number of factors involved reduced, the number of inefficient units decreased.

It is rather obvious that education, along with income, can be the cause of improvement in health, as the more educated people live longer and healthier lives. The collected data from 29 member states in the Islamic Conference indicate that the situation is the same and the health of the masses in these countries has improved as a result of educational investments, especially among educated mothers. Education, on the one hand, improves both the personal and social health and reduces death rates, while changing the way of living, it has improved the life expectancy as well. Thus any investment in education pays off in better health.

The increase in educational costs not only affects human capital, it reduces people's welfare, the consequences of which must be of interest to the decision makers. To assess the extent of this reduction the data on 53736 urban households in five categories were used and the extent of demand for education estimated. The findings show that the extent of welfare reduction has been different for various income categories indicating a positive correlation. The reasons for such an event could lie in the difference in demand for education across income categories, the overall low level of expenses, the relative low share of education in overall household expenses, the relatively low number of students in the low income households, and the preference for the relatively cheap public education. Thus, the policies affecting the cost of education need to be reevaluated in order to prevent further reduction in the welfare of the low income households.

Funding public education in Iran during the past four decades has many ups and downs, as different factors have been at work determining the actual funding. To determine which combinations of economic, political or demographic factors have had the most impact, the available period data were analyzed using the VEC model. Results are indicative of two factors having the most effect on determining the educational budget: one, the rate of increase in student population, and the other, the previous year's budget which had the most impact. Thus, it is concluded that the funding is done through the accumulative method which is not an efficient method, given the lack of transparency that goes with it. It is, therefore, suggested that a performance-based method of allocation of funds be used.

The global tendency towards privatization in general, and of education in particular, during the past three decades led to a similar trend in Iran. However, recently a drastic drop in this trend and an increase in the number of private school closures have been noted. To identify the reasons for this trend, and find ways of reversing it, three groups of informants consisting of a group of currently active founders, a group of recently inactivated founders, and a group of experts on private schools were consulted in these regards. The results show that there have been four categories of challenges including economic, organizational, educational, and administrative factors that have resulted in the closures.

For any educational system to be effective, its teachers have to be effective, and this to a great extent depends on their socio-economic wellbeing and perception of organizational justice. A comparison of teacher's salary and benefits, at both the international and national levels, and also between Iranian teachers working domestically and abroad, showed a great gap between the two. However, their buying power over the period of 2001-2007 did increase. Nevertheless, with all the increases, the difference between the salaries and household expenses was significant. Although the Ministry of Education ranks 5th in terms of the level of education of its employees among all governmental agencies, their pay significantly lags behind. The justification given for this inequality, i.e. lower working hours, was examined, and the results indicate the necessity of redefining teacher's working hours and salaries and benefits.

To assess the extents of waste and the resulting financial damages in elementary schools across Iranian provinces, international indices were used to calculate the rate of waste, the per-student expenses, and the financial damages resulted from therein. The results show that the provinces of SeestaanvaBaloochestaan with 33.8% waste, and Tehran with only 3.1% waste have the most and the least extent of waste. Drop outs and grade repetition were the strongest causes of waste. The overall national waste caused by drop outs was assessed to be close to 900 billion Rials while the waste caused by grade repetition is close to 750 billion Rials.