Authors: Mbam Iorfa Chiangi, Maha Friday
Journal Article | Publish Date: 01/June/2024
The paper conceptualized cost benefit analysis and cost effectiveness in Education. Education from the perspective of the individual or the government is an expensive enterprise that needs cost analysis for decision making at all times. Cost is a term used to express not only the money but also the alternative forgone in order to produce a given item or service. Cost in education reflects the real resources (material, human and time) used up in the production of educated individuals as estimated in monetary terms. Cost in education was conceptualized from two-related perspectives; direct and indirect cost. The direct costs include the cost of all items purchased or used for the educational system and indirect cost includes all opportunities or alternatives forgone to acquire education. The scarcity of resources in education necessitates analysis of cost benefit and cost effectiveness for optimum achievement of educational objectives. Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) in education entailed an evaluation of the cost of education to the benefit derivable from expenditure on education. Cost-benefit analysis is a ready tool for the estimation of the rates of return to different levels and types of education. Cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) is an alternative to cost-benefit analysis (CBA). The technique compares the relative costs to the outcomes (effects) of two or more courses of action. CEA is most useful when analysts face constraints which prevent them from conducting cost-benefit analysis. Cost-effectiveness analysis is the consideration of decision alternatives in which both their costs and consequences are taken into account in a systematic way. The paper concluded that cost analysis is an indisputable tool in modern educational management. To better achieve educational objectives, the paper recommended among others that Suitable strategies should be mapped out in making adequate provisions in education in case of high demand for education in a given period so as to control the upsurge of cost in education.
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