Spend extra €10k on each student, urges EU report

By Niall Murray Education Correspondent

Thursday, November 26, 2009

EXTRA investment in school buildings and extra teachers will help many countries relaunch their economies in the short term, and is expected to enhance long-term economic perspectives, according to an EU report on education published yesterday.

It also suggests that EU countries need to invest an average extra €10,000 per student to match the funding going into third level education in the United States, where private funding boosts investment.

The draft European Commission report going for approval to EU education ministers today acknowledges the limited resources available to many countries because of the downturn, but points out that education investment is part of the recovery plan in some member states.

The report shows that public investment in third level education in Ireland fell from well above average at 1.22% of national income in 2001 to 1.14%, and barely above the 1.12% EU average in 2006. Despite third level bosses’ claims over the past year that services to students are under threat by Government funding cuts, Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe insists he needs to reverse some of the 33% increase in third-level funding to €2bn a year since 2000.

A separate Commission report has found mixed performance by the Irish education system, with higher-than-average reading and maths achievements by 15-year-olds and above-target improvements in school dropout rates. However, a worrying issue for Government may be the highlighting of a 3.6% drop in numbers of university graduates in maths, science and technology since 2000, while numbers across Europe rose by more than a third.

It has also found the 7.1% of adults taking part in lifelong learning compares poorly to the EU average of 9.5% and a target of 12.5%.

This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Thursday, November 26, 2009