This study is a study on educational costs. Its main focus is recurrent costs in secondary schools in the state of Negeri Sembilan in Malaysia. It is concerned with issues pertaining to the relationship among educational costs, the distribution of costs among inputs and how various inputs are utilised in teaching and learning. Two basic themes form the basis of the study - the efficiency and equity in resource utilisation and distribution. The study is firstly an analysis of cost quantities and their distribution by the various educational inputs; personnel inputs - teachers and non-teaching staff, and non-personnel /non-salary inputs. Secondly, the study focuses on the rate of teacher utilisation in terms of their time on tasks. This is done by undertaking a survey of teaching loads and class size. Thirdly, the study pursued the issue of equity in the distribution of educational resources by undertaking a survey of teacher salaries and teaching experience as well as by analysing fiscal school income by means of capitation grants. Findings from the research uncover variations in costs in schools. Factors affecting costs were mainly the pupil teacher ratio, teacher costs, boarding costs and nonpersonnel costs in Vocational schools. The inherent dominance of teacher costs in the teaching industry is also confirmed by this research. The study also provides evidence of wastage in teacher utilisation, maldistribution of teacher' quality', disparities in the distribution of fiscal non-personnel resources, suggesting to an extent inefficiencies and inequalities in the pattern of recurrent costs in schools. There was also an overwhelming advantage in economies of scale. In summary, the study revealed that educational costs analysis can help in the following areas namely in the identification of cost quantities, factors affecting costs, rates of utilisation of educational resources and the distribution of resources. Major findings from the study show possible applications to planning and policymak:ing. Areas identified are in cost estimations and evaluation, cost comparisons for various purposes, management and control of resomces, efficiency and equity considerations in utilising and distributing of educational resources. In the context of the recent economic crisis, education in Malaysia will be faced with pressures both from the fiscal and demographic fronts. In this condition, it will be Abstract 111 difficult even to maintain the current level of expenditure on education. Research findings from this study can therefore be a recipe for cost saving and cost containment. Policies that promote efficient use of existing scarce resources are obviously necessary. Above all, a prerequisite vital to all this is an urgent need to strengthen the informational basis for cost analysis in Malaysia.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:310673 |
| Date | January 2000 |
| Creators | Yussof, Ahmad Basri |
| Publisher | University of Sussex |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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