Το Μέγεθος των Σχολικών Μονάδων επιδρά στο ανά Μαθητή Δημόσιο Κόστος; Εμπειρική Απόδειξη από τα Δημοτικά Σχολεία Δήμων της Περιφέρειας Αττικής

Abstract

One of the questions that concern the economists of education, the directors of educational system but also the politicians who make the decisions, is whether the size (number of students) of schools affects the annual public cost per pupil. Subsequently, they concerns for the approach of the optimal size of schools. The paper researches the related questions in primary schools (traditional / classic and by uniform reformed educational program) of South Municipalities of Athens. The paper is based on the theory of cost production, because the education structures are considered production systems. It uses cross-section data for the school year 2013-2014. The paper applies statistics and econometrics methodologies. It Estimates the quadratic function with dependent variable the annual public cost per pupil and independent variable the number of pupils in schools. Then it determines the extremeness of the function. The empirical results show negative, non-linear correlation of public cost per pupil with the size of schools. Also, it reveals that the size of schools in the region which studied is small in relation to the potential optimal size. A redesign of the primary education system with the schools size is closed to optimum will lead to a significant reduction of the annual public cost.