Households' living situation and the efficient provision of primary education in Burkina Faso

Primary education plays a central role in the Burkinabe school system. Several projects have been launched that contribute to expanding the resources available for basic education in Burkina Faso. However, education systems in the different administrative regions of Burkina Faso may not all be equally capable of employing the resources they receive to generate significant results. This study uses the data envelopment analysis (DEA) method to assess the efficiency with which basic education is provided throughout the 45 provinces of Burkina Faso. Overall, our results reveal that resources are not used optimally for the provision of basic education in the provinces of Burkina Faso. Moreover, in most of the provinces studied, returns to scale in basic education are decreasing. In order to explain inefficiency scores, we also use the Simar and Wilson (2007) procedure. We find that households' living situation can explain efficiency in primary education provision.