STUDY REGARDING THE EFFICIENCY OF PUBLIC SPENDING ON EDUCATION AT EU LEVEL THROUGH BENCHMARKING

The objective of this paper is to review the efficiency of public expenditure for education in Romania compared to other EU countries, and to the EU average. Thus we proceeded to a benchmarking analysis. In order to perform an analysis of public spending efficiency for education by benchmarking at the EU level, representative indicators must be chosen in order to quantify the volume of efforts and effects. The effort of education was represented by public expenditure on education as percentage of GDP, and the effects took the form of a composite indicator consisting of 19 sub-indicators. If the public sector effort was relatively easy to quantify, the effects involve a deeper analysis and determine the limitations of this study. The conclusion is that either the level of funding in Romania is oversized compared to its effects, or resources were not used properly in accordance with the principles of performance.It would be foolhardy to suggest increased funding for education, when the analysis carried out shows that the volume of financing is not the problem, but towards the use of funds.