literacy for life; EFA global monitoring report, 2006 - Institut de ...

COUNTRY EFFORTS: INCREASING MOMENTUM / 81
Latin America and the Caribbean North America and Western Europe Central and
Eastern Europe
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
Total public expenditure on education
as % of total government expenditure
Montserrat
Panama
St Kitts/Nevis
Ecuador
Br. Virgin Is
Jamaica
Uruguay
Anguilla
Paraguay
Brazil
Dominican Rep.
Neth. Antilles
Grenada
Trinidad/Tobago
Argentina
Nicaragua
Colombia
Aruba
Turks/Caicos Is
Peru
Barbados
Belize
Guyana
Chile
Cuba
Bolivia
El Salvador
St Vincent/Grenad.
Costa Rica
Mexico
Germany
Italy
Netherlands
Austria
Spain
France
United Kingdom
Canada
Finland
Portugal
Sweden
Ireland
Switzerland
Denmark
Norway
United States
Slovakia
Czech Rep.
Croatia
Russian Fed.
Poland
Hungary
Ukraine
Rep. Moldova
0
Table 3.2: Primary net enrolment ratios, education expenditure and teachers, 1998 and 2002
Niger
Ethiopia
Guinea
U. R. Tanzania
Lesotho
Madagascar
Primary net enrolment
ratio (%)
Education expenditure
as a % of GNP
26 38 m m 12.9 15.9 41:01 42:01
36 47 4.3 4.6* 13.8** m 46:01 65:01
45 66 1.8 1.9 25.8 25.6** 47:01 45:01
46 68 3.0 m 21.1*** 24.4*** 38:01 53:01
65 86 10.2 8.4 25.5 18.4 44:01 47:01
65 79 1.9 2.9 10.2 m 47:01 52:01
education’s share in government budget
increased in more than half the countries with
data available (see statistical annex, Table 11).
Data compiled by the International Monetary
Fund and the World Bank confirm this trend.
After debt relief measures went into effect,
seventeen of nineteen highly indebted poor
countries in sub-Saharan Africa increased their
education expenditure as a share of GDP, and
nine increased it as a share of total government
expenditure (Hinchliffe, 2004).
This generally positive trend was, however,
somewhat offset by declines in some countries.
Decreases in spending shares were particularly
significant in the Congo, Ecuador, Saint Kitts and
Nevis, South Africa and Togo, for both indicators.
Some African countries, including Guinea
and Lesotho (Table 3.2), have improved access
to education without increasing public spending
on education as a share of GDP or of government
Education expenditure as
a % of government budget
Primary pupil/teacher ratio
1998 2002 1998 2002 1998 2002 1998 2002
Notes: m = missing; * = 2001, ** = 2000, *** = World Bank data.
Sources: Statistical annex, Tables 5, 10A and 11; World Bank database (2004).
budget. This has been achieved mainly
by raising pupil/teacher ratios, however –
dramatically so in Ethiopia and the United
Republic of Tanzania.
Distribution across levels of education
also matters
If the level of public resources allocated to
education is crucial to the achievement of EFA,
their distribution matters as well. Figure 3.6
presents the distribution of education expenditure
by sub-sector. 9 The set of countries having low
primary enrolment rates allocates a relatively
high share of total public expenditure to this subsector,
while countries where UPE is close to
being achieved allocate a lower share to primary.
Figure 3.7 shows an emerging shift from
primary to secondary education between 1998
and 2002 for countries that have reached UPE.
Countries such as Poland and the Republic of
The level of
public resources
allocated
to education
is crucial to
the achievement
of EFA, their
distribution
matters as well
9. Comparable data exist for
only twenty-two countries.