Survey shows large variations among countries in education and training investment

Citation

(2004), "Survey shows large variations among countries in education and training investment", Education + Training, Vol. 46 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/et.2004.00446aab.008

Survey shows large variations among countries in education and training investment

Survey shows large variations among countries in education and training investment

EU member states devoted an average of 5 per cent of their national wealth, or gross domestic product, to spending on education, according to the European statistics office, Eurostat. There is a large variation between the countries, ranging from 3.6 per cent in Greece to 7.5 per cent in Sweden and 8.1 per cent in Denmark. The figure for Britain was 4.4 per cent. Annual spending per pupil ranged from 7,518 in Austria to 2,903 in Greece. The figure for Britain was 4,716. The average for the EU as a whole was 5,222. In the future member states, the figure goes from a high of 4,266 in Cyprus and 2,835 in the Czech Republic to a low of 1,875 in Poland and 1,716 in Latvia. On average, in the 15 EU member states, the public sector spent 10.4 per cent of its budget on education. Denmark, Ireland, Portugal and Sweden all spent more than 12 per cent of their public-sector budget on education while Germany, Greece and Italy spent less than 10 per cent.

The Lisbon summit in 2000 called for a "substantial annual increase in the per capita investment in human resources" in order to transform the EU into the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010. Last year, the Commission adopted a communication on "Investing Efficiently in Education and Training: an Imperative for Europe", which looks at the issue of investment in education and training. The Commission expressed concern about the under-investment in human resources in Europe as regards the overall level of funding, and concluded that new investment in education and training was necessary.