Factors determining the relative efficiency of Brazilian Federal Institutes of Education, Science and Technology

Abstract The Federal Network of Professional, Scientific and Technological Education, linked to the Ministry of Education, has 38 Federal Institutes present in all Brazilian states and the Federal District. Created in 2005, the Expansion Plan for the Federal Network of Vocational Education aimed to expand the presence of these institutions throughout the national territory. Starting from the premise of the importance of federal public education, this paper analyzes the relative efficiency of the management of public financial resources of the Brazilian Federal Institutes of Education, Science and Technology. The research has a quantitative approach and covers the four-year period 2016-2019. As for the type of sampling, the research worked with the research universe, based on a document analysis in the annual analysis reports of the management indicators of these institutions. The research uses Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to measure the relative efficiency of these institutes and the Tobit regression analysis model to verify the conditioning factors of these efficiency levels. The result set has shown a great heterogeneity between the institutions analyzed in the period, revealing that only 39.5% of Brazilian IFETs operate above the average relative efficiency score. The institutions that presented the best efficiency scores gradually expanded the course offerings and the number of vacancies over the years to optimize the existing workforce.