Ireland falls short on education spending survey
Ireland had one of the lowest education budgets among developed nations as the boom years drew to a close, an independent study revealed today.
The think-tank report found just 4.7% of taxpayers’ money was used in children’s schooling in 2007 – compared to an average 6.2%.
The study, compiled by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), said Ireland had the fourth lowest out of 31 countries.
Education at a Glance 2010, a report on national education, revealed that only the Czech Republic, Italy and Slovakia paid out less.
Sheila Nunan, general secretary of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO), said this was the reason Irish parents had to subsidise their children’s schools.
“For every seven euro spent on a primary pupil, nine is spent on second level and €12 is spent on third level,” said Ms Nunan.
She added: “Irish primary education is significantly underfunded and under-resourced.
“Teachers and parents are rightly outraged when they see less than adequate funding for the education of young children being cut in order to rescue failed economic policies.”
Fergus O'Dowd, Fine Gael's education spokesman, said the Government's education spend pales in comparison with the other 32 OECD states.
“Education holds the key to our economic recovery,” Mr O’Dowd said.
“We need a skilled, high-tech workforce participating in a thriving ’knowledge’ economy. This means that education should be in the vanguard of policy formation but Fianna Fáil is, instead, leaving the sector languishing. It is to all our cost that this is the case.”
Sinn Féin Senator Pearse Doherty said the fourth from bottom ranking was a kick in the face to taxpayers.
“The Government and Minister for Education need to get real. They cannot waste billions of taxpayers’ money bailing out banks while at the same time delivering substandard public services such as education,” the Senator said.
The Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland (Asti) said Ireland’s fourth from bottom ranking was deeply depressing.
General secretary Pat King said: “This year’s OECD’s report – once again - confirms the importance of education in terms of keeping individuals in the labour force but also in terms of upgrading their employability and meeting the demand for skilled labour.
“Given that these figures relate to 2007 – before the crisis – they are an even bigger indictment of the failure of successive governments to build the educational infrastructure necessary for the knowledge economy.”
Both Asti and the INTO said the report confirmed Irish teachers were being paid below the OECD average.
The OECD said the impact of recession over the last three years showed the value of investing in education.
It said that during the economic downturn, young people with low levels of education were hard hit, with unemployment rates for early school leavers rising by about 5% in OECD countries between 2008 and 2009. The unemployment rate for graduates only increased by 2%, the report said.
OECD secretary-general Angel Gurria said: “Good education increases employability. In countries hit early by the recession, people with lower levels of education had more difficulties finding and keeping a job.”
The think-tank also warned governments that spending public funds in university education pays off handsomely in the long run by bringing in additional tax revenues during a graduate’s working life.
Ruairi Quinn, Labour education spokesman, said: “At a time when there seemed to be no shortage of cash to spend on ill-conceived vanity projects and half-baked schemes like (health service payroll) Ppars and electronic voting, many of our school children were languishing in overcrowded classes, and in schools that were housed in clapped-out prefabs.
“This Government has continued to neglect our education system, and has presided over savage cuts that have seen a dramatic reduction in the numbers of special needs assistants working with teachers in our schools, transition year programmes being scrapped in second-level schools around the country, and hundreds of schools being denied the money they need to invest in basic refurbishments, improvements and extensions.”
