Abstract:

Crisis caused by the COVID 19 pandemic has turned our lives and education in general a 180 ° turn. The present study is carried out in one of the faculties of a public university in Ecuador. The objective is to analyze impacts of the pandemic, both in human capital and in economic resources, applying an optimization model of class hours and resources with the intention that educational offer remains constant, while the costs are minimized. A multi-objective linear programming model has been applied: maintaining academic offer and minimizing costs, with budget restrictions, on the number of teachers who work. In addition, have been incorporated as restrictions legal regulations specific to the crisis that has defined the number of hours class of teachers based on their dedication to the institution. The analyzed faculty keep approximately 3000 students, whose offer has not been reduced despite the crisis. However, as a result of the optimization, some analysis ratios have been changed, for example, that of students per teacher, which in previous periods it was 20, while with the optimization process due to the pandemic it has increased to 25. In other words, the results of this optimization process have resulted in a 15% reduction in the teaching staff (all non-permanent teachers) , representing a reduction in monthly spending on wages and salaries of 13%. Considering the optimization criteria, teaching hours have been increased mainly to cover the technological gap in education, however, the hours assigned to research, entailment with society and doctoral training have been reduced between 40% and 65% respectively. In this way, the optimization criteria are accomplished, however, it is necessary to highlight that the budgetary limitations should not be applied to the education sector where research should be strengthened so that the academy contributes to the solution of the problems caused due to this pandemic. In addition, the entailment processes must be stronger to support vulnerable sectors, and doctoral training will guarantee the quality of education. Analysis of teaching hours has allowed us to understand evolution of using of virtual platforms, which shows that in the months prior to the pandemic using of virtual platforms was basically nil, while in March the month in which the pandemic was declared, 40% of teachers started using these tools. In July approximately 80% of teachers use these platforms daily to teach their classes. In addition, attendance by students has also intensified progressively during these months, especially through the Zoom platform. The main conclusion of the analysis shows that education has changed remarkably, that virtual classrooms are getting more and more attention and that optimization processes allow public education to be kept free even in crisis, with notable sacrifices from other areas.

Keywords:

Optimization, higher education, budgetary restrictions.