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 inve sted in education, particularly in the public sector. Historical and c omparative examples of reform movements in education in the US, UK and Australia, the methodology of comparative education and the ongoing r eforms in higher education in both the UK and Australia reveal that ar guments about efficiency, not least in the current era of worldwide ec onomic stringency, often consist of little more than arguments about e conomics or economism. In particular, efficiency movements can be argu ed to be predicated upon the idea that both individual worth and the w orth of education can be reduced to economic terms. Equally, individua ls and societies are also seen as rational, in so far as they invest i n education only to the extent that education delivers a better econom ic rate of return than other forms of investment.