The Cult of Efficiency in Education: Comparative reflections on the reality and the rhetoric

What is argued in this article is that the rising tide of 'efficiency' in contemporary education often masks a reduction in both the quality of education provided and attempts to reduce levels of resources invested in education, particularly in the public sector. Historical and comparative examples of reform movements in education in the US, UK and Australia, the methodology of comparative education and the ongoing reforms in higher education in both the UK and Australia reveal that arguments about efficiency, not least in the current era of worldwide economic stringency, often consist of little more than arguments about economics or economism. In particular, efficiency movements can be argued to be predicated upon the idea that both individual worth and the worth of education can be reduced to economic terms. Equally, individuals and societies are also seen as rational, in so far as they invest in education only to the extent that education delivers a better economic rate of return than other fo...