Institutional Efficiency of Private Tahfiz Institutions in Selangor: Implications for Sustainable Religious Education

This purpose of this study is to examines the institutional efficiency of private tahfiz institutions in Selangor and discusses its implications for sustainable religious education and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). By utilizing the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), the study evaluates technical efficiency (TE), pure technical efficiency (PTE), and scale efficiency (SE) among 34 private tahfiz institutions over the period 2015 to 2020. The analysis employs three inputs, namely the number of students enrolled, number of staff, and operating expenditure, and two outputs, namely the number of Huffaz graduates and student continuation to the next level of education. The findings indicate considerable variation in institutional efficiency across the study period, with mean technical efficiency ranging from 0.326 to 0.429. The results also indicate that inefficiency is associated with both managerial performance and scale-related factors, highlighting differences in resource utilisation among private tahfiz institutions. Several institutions consistently operated on the efficiency frontier, while others recorded persistently low or fluctuating efficiency scores. These findings provide empirical evidence of differences in institutional resource utilisation and educational outcomes among private tahfiz institutions in Selangor. While the selected educational outputs represent important institutional outcomes, they should not be interpreted as comprehensive measures of educational quality. Nevertheless, the efficiency evidence provides useful implications for institutional management, resource allocation, governance, and the sustainability of tahfiz education. The findings may also inform efforts to strengthen the contribution of private tahfiz education towards the broader objectives of SDG 4.

Private Tahfiz, Institutional Efficiency, Data Envelopment Analysis, Islamic Education, Sustainable Education

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