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for those countries which provide comprehensive data on private sources of
funding for both tuition and other costs associated with education, the total
amount spent varies from around 1.8 per cent of total GDP in the United States
to 0.8 per cent in France.
Many of the countries with high overall spending relative to GDP (shown
... but this total depends on
in part B, Figure 3.1) also have high spending per student (shown in part A). In
a combination of factors...
particular, the Nordic countries have mainly high relative spending on both
measures. In some cases the two indicators produce very different pictures.
For example, Austria spends about twice as much educating a student in primary
education, relative to GDP per capita, than does Ireland. However, overall, the
two countries spend a similar percentage of national income on education and
training. This situation arises in large part because Ireland has more than average,
and Austria fewer than average, young people. A higher than average, proportion
of young Irish people but a lower than average proportion of young Austrians
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are enrolled in education. These demographic and enrolment rate differences
INVESTMENT IN HUMAN CAPITAL
Figure 3.1. Spending on education relative to national income, 1994
Primary Secondary Tertiary Percentage of GDP (public and private)
A. Amount spent per student B. Total public and private spending
divided by GDP per capita (= 100) on education as % of GDP
%
100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Sweden
Denmark
Finland
Canada
United States
Norway*
France
Hungary
Spain
OECD average
Korea
Australia
Ireland
Germany
New Zealand*
Netherlands
Mexico
Portugal
Czech Republic
Austria
Switzerland*
Belgium*
Japan
United Kingdom*
Italy
Turkey
Greece*
100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
%
OECD countries devote a substantial proportion of their national income to education,
but the amount spent on each student varies greatly by educational level.
* Public sources only (Part B only).
Data for Figure 3.1, p. 103.
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Source: OECD (1997c).
HUMAN CAPITAL INVESTMENT  AN INTERNATIONAL COMPARISON
make Irish spending 1 per cent of GDP higher and Austrian spending 1 per cent
of GDP lower than they would otherwise be: a substantial proportion of the
total spent on education (see OECD, 1997b, p. 15).
As well as overall enrolment rates and unit costs, a number of other factors
have an important effect on overall spending. These include differences in the
distribution of enrolments between more or less expensive sectors and fields
of study. In some countries, private payments other than to educational
institutions (e.g. expenditure by households on student living expenses, books,
and other supplies) are considerable, exceeding 0.5 per cent of GDP in Finland,
the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Turkey (see OECD, 1997c, Indicator
B1.1a). Government financial aid to students for living expenses is also
substantial in many countries, ranging from below 0.05 per cent of GDP in Japan
and the United States to over 1 per cent of GDP in Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
The lower levels of public expenditure for formal education in countries such
as Germany, Korea and Japan are partly explained by the high levels of private
sources of funding (including company funding for the dual training system in
Germany).
... a key variable is spending Spending per student relative to per capita GDP varies considerably,
per student; countries vary among both richer and poorer countries. On this measure, two countries with
greatly in the relative resourcing vastly different levels of per capita income (Hungary and Switzerland) spend
of students at different similar portions of that income to educate the typical primary student. There is
educational levels. also variation in the relative amounts of expenditure per student across
education levels. For example, in Italy, approximately similar amounts are spent
per student across primary, secondary and tertiary levels, whereas in Ireland,
over three and a half times as much is spent per student at tertiary than at
primary level.
Indicators of spending on education over time are less robust than for
current spending, because of relatively recent improvements in comparability.
However, it should be noted that spending on education as a percentage of
GDP has been relatively stable since the 1970s (see OECD, 1996a, Chapter 1).
Rising rates of participation among young people have to some extent been
offset by reductions in the size of the youth population and the containment of
unit costs.
Expenditure on public labour market training programmes
In addition to making the larger part of the investment in initial education
Governments also invest in adult
and training, governments contribute to subsequent investments in human
skills through labour market
capital by adults. One strategic way of directing limited public funds towards
training programmes.
direct enhancement of human capital is through programmes designed actively
to assist employed and unemployed people to function in the labour market.
Active labour market programmes include education and training programmes
as well as temporary employment schemes and recruitment subsidies.
Public expenditures on labour market training programmes directed at
the unemployed and other disadvantaged groups in the labour market, as well
as on training of the employed, average 0.34 per cent of GDP. But as shown in
Table 3.1, there is wide variation across countries, with some of the Nordic
38 countries, particularly Denmark and Sweden, spending substantially more than [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]