Towards a Better Future

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Chapter Eleven: The Financing and Resourcing of Education at Primary and Post-Primary Levels Product (GDP). GDP, which includes the income generated by multi-national firms (some repatriated to parent countries), is used extensively in the European Union and by the OECD. GNP is a somewhat better measure as it relates to the income accruing to the country, as opposed to GDP, which in many cases, and especially in Ireland, masks significant repatriation of profits. However, both measures are subject to serious criticism and should be regarded as inadequate indicators of progress due, inter alia, to their failure to take account of the distribution of income and the prevalence of “ poverty. Due to recent controversies about the use of GDP as it is affected by the activities of the large Irish multi-national sector, the use of statistics based on GDP has raised queries about the value of GDP as an indicator of economic growth in Ireland - notoriously described as ‘leprechaun economics’. Nevertheless, because of the use of GDP by most countries, and specifically by the OECD, and because the figures in Education at a Glance are converted to common currencies using PPPs, reference will be made to it throughout this chapter, bearing in mind these cautionary comments. Due to recent controversies about the use of GDP as it is affected by the activities of the large Irish multi-national sector, the use of statistics based on GDP has raised queries about the value of GDP as an indicator of economic growth in Ireland ” Core Educational Services Expenditure on core educational services includes all expenditure that is directly related to instruction and education. This should cover all expenditure on teachers, school buildings, teaching materials, books, tuition outside schools and administration of schools. Intended Instruction Time/Instructional Hours Intended instruction time refers to the number of hours per year for which students receive instruction in both the compulsory and non-compulsory parts of the curriculum. For countries with no formal policy on instruction time, the number of hours was estimated from survey data. Hours lost when schools are closed for festivities and celebrations, such as national holidays, are excluded. Intended instruction time does not include non-compulsory time outside the school day. It does not include homework, individual tutoring or private study taken before or after school. Teaching Time/Teaching Hours Teaching time is defined as the net contact hours of teaching. It is calculated based on the annual number of weeks of instruction multiplied by the minimum/maximum number of periods, which a teacher is scheduled to spend teaching a class or a group, multiplied by the length of a period in minutes and divided by 60. Periods of time formally allowed for breaks between lessons or groups — 169 —
Towards a Better Future: A Review of the Irish School System of lessons, and days when schools are closed for public holidays and festivities, are excluded. In primary education, however, short breaks that teachers spend with the class are typically included. Post-Primary/Secondary Institutions The OECD uses the term ‘secondary’ institutions to refer to what are mainly called ‘post-primary’ institutions in Ireland. They sometimes divide the data into lower and upper secondary education and occasionally combine these data with figures for non-tertiary post-secondary institutions. When looking at the figures for Ireland, it makes most sense to draw on those for combined lower and upper secondary. In this chapter, we make use of the OECD’s practice of referring to post-primary institutions as secondary ones. Tertiary Education As this report focuses on the school system up to the end of post-primary (i.e. upper secondary education), for the most part we do not explore changes in the financing of third-level education. We acknowledge that the cuts to state resources have been proportionately greater at third level than in the rest of the educational system. However, some of the figures in Education at a Glance include primary through tertiary education and these are included below, where appropriate. THE AMOUNT SPENT PER STUDENT In 2012, on average OECD countries spent $10,220 per student from primary through tertiary education: $8,247 per primary student, $9,518 per secondary student, and $15,028 per tertiary student. These are, of course, average figures and mask substantial differences between countries. The relevant figures for Ireland in the year 2012 were $8,681 per primary student, $11,298 per secondary (i.e. post-primary) student, and $14,922 per tertiary student (including R&D activities). This put Ireland’s per-student spending above average for primary and secondary, but below average for tertiary education. In 2012, Ireland’s expenditure per student for primary ranked 13 th out of the 34 countries for which data were available. Its per student expenditure for primary was less than that of, for example, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Norway, the U.S., Denmark, and the U.K. It was greater than, for example, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Australia and the Slovak Republic, among others. In 2012, Ireland’s per-student expenditure ranked eighth for all secondary (upper and lower secondary combined). Its per-student expenditure was less than that of, for example, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Norway, Austria, the US and Belgium. It was greater than, for example, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Sweden and the UK, among others (OECD, 2015, pp. 208 & 219). The figures for the year 2013 are presented in Table 1 and Figure 1: — 170 —
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Towards a Better Future

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