Financing Education / pdf - Unesco

0
2
0
8
CHAPTER 4
Education for All Global Monitoring Report
The financial
effort required
to continue
beyond primary
education is
often much
larger than for
the primary cycle
Uganda and Zambia about one-third of households’
discretionary spending was for education goods and
services, the same share as in Bangladesh (Boyle
et al., 2002). For poor households the burden can
be particularly heavy. For instance, the household
expenditure per primary school pupil in Tajikistan
as a share of per capita household expenditure is
twice as high for the poorest fifth of households as
for the richest fifth.
The financial effort required to continue beyond
primary education is often much larger than for the
primary cycle. Indian households surveyed in 2001
in selected districts were spending twice the
amount per child in upper primary government
schools as in primary schools (Jha and Jhingran,
2005). Fees paid by households in the Democratic
Republic of Congo for each child enrolled in public
primary schools represent up to 14% of average per
capita income (varying by region), increasing up to
42% in public secondary schools (World Bank,
2005c). And in Mozambique, before the elimination
of school fees, average total household expenditure
per child enrolled in the upper grades of basic
education was almost three times that for the lower
grades, while expenditure on lower secondary could
be nine times that for primary education (World
Bank, 2005g). Again, the burden is heaviest for the
poorest households. The share of a secondary
student’s expenses in per capita household
expenditure was roughly twice as high in the
poorest households as in the richest in Guatemala,
Nicaragua, Tajikistan and Timor-Leste (Table 4.7)
School costs are a barrier
to school access
While some households can cover the expenses
that are associated with school attendance, many
poor households cannot. In addition, for such
households the perceived benefits of schooling may
not be sufficient to justify the expenditure. ‘Lack of
money’, ‘economic problems’, ‘need to work’ and
‘family can’t afford school expenses’ are the main
reasons cited in several studies of why children do
not attend school; see, for example, Bangladesh,
Nepal, Uganda and Zambia (Boyle et al., 2002);
Yemen (Guarcello et al., 2006b); and Albania,
Kazakhstan, Latvia, Mongolia, Slovakia and
Tajikistan (Education Support Program, 2007).
In Uganda before the elimination of school fees,
71% of children surveyed cited cost of attendance
as the main reason for having dropped out of
primary school (Deininger, 2003). Fees are cited
as a major obstacle to school enrolment in China
and Indonesia (Bentaouet-Kattan, 2006).
Amplifying the effects of direct and indirect costs
of schooling, many households tend to invest less
in children for whom the value of schooling is
perceived to be less important, or when cultural
Table 4.7: Education expenditure as a share of household expenditure, selected countries
Education expenditure as a share of total annual household expenditure
All education levels Primary Lower secondary
Guatemala (2000)
Nicaragua (2001)
Panama (2003)
Tajikistan (2003)
Timor-Leste (2001)
Total
Poorest
20%
Richest
20%
Total
Poorest
20%
Richest
20%
Poorest
20%
5.1 2.2 8.2 2.5 1.8 3.9 7.6 5.8 7.6
5.5 3.8 7.5 2.6 2.7 3.1 4.5 5.6 4.2
7.7 5.5 9.3 4.0 2.8 6.6 5.2 4.4 6.9
5.5 6.3 6.0 2.8 3.6 2.3 3.4 4.3 3.2
1.5 1.5 1.5 1.0 1.1 0.6 1.5 2.5 1.2
Total
Richest
20%
Education expenditure per pupil as a share of annual household expenditure per capita
All education levels Primary Lower secondary
Guatemala (2000)
Nicaragua (2001)
Panama (2003)
Tajikistan (2003)
Timor-Leste (2001)
Total
Poorest
20%
Richest
20%
Total
Poorest
20%
Richest
20%
Poorest
20%
13.5 8.4 18.5 9.3 7.3 14.0 31.1 47.7 26.5
13.7 11.3 17.5 9.0 9.1 11.1 18.7 34.7 15.0
18.9 15.6 20.4 15.2 11.5 24.1 22.9 28.2 25.5
16.4 21.0 15.2 13.9 19.4 10.4 15.0 20.5 12.5
4.2 4.6 3.7 3.3 3.8 2.1 7.7 14.2 5.4
Total
Richest
20%
Sources: Guatemala Government and World Bank (2000); Nicaragua National Statistics and Census Institute and World Bank (2001); Panama Government
and World Bank (2003); Tajikistan Goscomstat and World Bank (2003); Timor-Leste National Statistics Directorate and World Bank (2001).
152