Resource Allocation of Elementary Schools in Kaohsiung City of Taiwan：An Application of Centralized Data Envelopment Analysis

近二十年來，因整體社會結構改變，總生育率持續探底，少子化問題越趨嚴重，進而間接影響我國經濟發展，亦衍生許多社會問題，對此國內各界皆高度關注，政府各部門亦不斷採行各種改革措施。 然而，少子化趨勢以國民小學首當其衝。小學教育體制若無法隨少子化問題予以適當調整，勢必帶來各種教育層面的問題，例如早已存在的教師供需失衡、教育資源浪費等等，在某種程度上將影響國家發展。對此，不僅教育當局實行各種策略以求改善，專家學者們亦提出不同見解。此外，近年來國內相關研究相當多，無論是以質化或量化分析，其追求的目標皆為改善國民教育績效。 雖然專家學者及教育當局提出各種積極改善措施，但是依然存在許多教育問題。由於總出生率遞減，學生數不斷縮減，國民教育資源分配已成為重要課題之一。若無法有效規劃教育資源，是難以達成教育公平、效率，及提升教育品質的。國內針對教育資源配置問題的相關研究已相當多，但分析的角度與方法不盡相同。本研究是根據中央化資料包絡分析法（Centralized Data Envelopment Analysis，CDEA），依短期及長期規劃，分別探討高雄市國民小學最適教育資源配置量。其中投入項目包括教師數、職員數、校地面積及其他支出；產出項目為班級數及學生數。 本研究與過去的研究不同之處為，為配合國民教育中央化組織特性，首篇以教育當局的角度分析，將各小學視為非獨立的決策單位，其資源配置量皆由教育局決定，依此規劃下找出高雄市各小學最適教育資源配置量，以達高雄市整體教育營運最佳績效。因此，本研究採用的分析方法能使結果更加接近現實情況。 藉由本實證結果，可歸納如下幾點結論： （1）由策略一及策略二可知，當人力總數不變條件下，各校皆需調整人力投入。 （2）由策略三、策略四及策略五可知，當面臨學生、班級數長期縮減的情況，且於人力總數可變的條件下，人力投入總量將大幅縮減，且大部分學校應大幅調整人力投入量。 （3）就各策略結果比較，當人力總數可調整且學生數縮減的情況下，相較於人力總數固定且學生數不變的情況下，其經費縮減幅度較大，且前者的減幅約為後者的1.5倍。 （4）由各策略比較發現，在面臨少子化衝擊下，部分學校應減少人力配置；而部分學校則需要增加人力配置，若整體而言，則勢必縮減人力總數。Owing to the changing social structure over the last 20 years, the total fertility rate continues to drop, and the trend of fewer children is getting worse. This has an indirect effect on economic development and has caused many social problems in Taiwan. Therefore, the problem has been given a great deal of attention with all government departments implementing various reforms. If, however, the educational system does not properly adjust to suit the trend of fewer children, it will bring many problems to the educational system. For example, there is an imbalance between supply and demand of teacher and education resource waste, etc. Our country’s development is affected by these problems to a certain degree. Thus, education authorities have been implementing various strategies to solve this issue. Specialists and scholars have also made some suggestions. Furthermore, there has been a lot of research on this topic in recent years. No matter what analysis method is used, their goal is to pursue improvement of compulsory education. Although specialists, scholars, and education authorities have proposed a series of positive improvement measures, many education problems still exist in Taiwan. Because the total fertility rate and the total number of students continue to decrease, the allocation of resources for compulsory education becomes an important subject. It is difficult to reach the equity and efficiency in education, or promote education quality without allocating education resources appropriately. There is already a great deal of domestic research with regard to the allocation of education resources but the analysis perspectives and methods are not the same. This study adopts the Centralized Data Envelopment Analysis (CDEA) method and aims at determining the optimum allocation of education resources for the elementary schools in Kaohsiung City based on short-term and long-term planning. In our research model, the input items include teachers, staff, school areas and other expenditures; output items include classes and students. Different from past research, this study is according to the identity of the compulsory education system, analyzing from the angle of the educational authority, and regards each elementary school as a dependent Decision-Making Unit whose allocation of resources is decided by a Local Education Authority. According to the plan, after determining the proper allocation of educational resources for each elementary school in Kaohsiung City, we then reach the optimal operation results of education for Kaohsiung City as a whole. The following are our empirical results: (1) Results of the strategy 1 and strategy 2: as the total manpower is constant, most of the schools should adjust manpower. (2) Results of the strategy 3, strategy 4 and strategy 5: when facing the long-term reduction of students and classes, and total manpower is variable, total manpower will be reduced quite substantially. Moreover, some schools should greatly adjust manpower inputs. (3) Comparison between different strategies: when the total manpower could be adjusted and the number of students is reduced in comparison to when the total manpower is constant and the number of students is invariable, the former should reduce the other expenditure by a larger margin. The margin of reduction of the former is 1.5 times larger than the latter. (4) Comparison between different strategies: when facing the shock from the trend of low fertility, some of schools should be reducing manpower allocation; some of schools should increasing manpower allocation. However, as a whole, total manpower must be reduced