Eficiência técnica do ensino médio estadual no brasil e implicações para a gestão pública: evidências por DEA

Abstract

The assessment of technical efficiency in upper secondary education provision represents a central challenge for educational public management in Brazil, given the regional heterogeneity and fiscal constraints that characterize the sector. The research question guiding this study is: how is technical efficiency configured in state-level upper secondary education across Brazilian states, considering their relative capacity to transform available resources into learning outcomes? The general objective is to evaluate this technical efficiency through the application of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), adopting a comparative approach to relative efficiency. The 27 Federation Units were treated as Decision-Making Units, using 2023 data from the School Census, SIOPE, and the Continuous PNAD. Inputs included: teachers, state schools, schools with internet access, schools with libraries, and educational expenditure; outputs included: IDEB and the enrollment rate of the population aged 15 to 17 years. Results reveal that, under the CCR model (constant returns to scale), only 2 states (7.4%) are efficient; under the BCC model (variable returns to scale), 9 states (33.3%) achieve the efficiency frontier, including São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo, Santa Catarina, Goiás, the Federal District, Acre, and Roraima. Benchmarking analysis identified Espírito Santo as a recurrent reference for 15 of the 18 inefficient units. For the state of Pará, feasible targets were projected: raising IDEB from 4.3 to 4.5 and the enrollment rate from 88.5% to 92.7%, while maintaining current resources. The study contributes theoretically by validating the hypothesis of decreasing returns to scale in the educational public sector; methodologically, by demonstrating that the integrated application of the CCR and BCC models clearly distinguishes structural and managerial components of inefficiency; and practically, by offering a Technical-Technological Product (Technical Guide) delivered to the State Department of Education of Pará (SEDUC-PA). It is concluded that inefficiency in state-level upper secondary education is not homogeneous, manifesting in a dual form – structural (associated with scale) and managerial (associated with resource use) – which requires differentiated interventions and guides public management toward the improvement of governance and resource allocation.