Eficiencia en establecimientos educacionales de Puerto Varas mediante análisis envolvente de datos

This research assess the efficiency of 15 educational establishments under the jurisdiction of the Puerto Varas municipality using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA); the aim was to analyze whether the use of resources related to the implementation of educational policies was optimized in 2022. Data from the Ministry of Education and the Quality Agency for Education were used, applying DEA models with constant returns to scale (CRS) and variable returns to scale (VRS), using Excel and R. The results show that six units (DMUs 3, 4, 5, 7, 11, and 14) are fully efficient under both approaches. Nine educational establishments show technical efficiency under VRS but not under CRS, indicating scale problems. Notable are DMUs 1 and 6, which present high technical efficiency but low overall efficiency, suggesting diminishing returns. Particularly, DMU 1 requires proportional and specific improvements, especially in outputs y2, y4, y5 and y6, showing technical inefficiency under VRS. Although it is efficient in the super-efficiency analysis, its performance suggests an oversized scale. Overall, the findings indicate that much of the inefficiencies observed in the analyzed establishments are more related to scale issues than to failures in internal management.