OECD criticises Government on education spending

MORE money is being spent on education but the Government has failed to increase investment as a percentage of its overall spending power.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report, Education at a Glance 2003, published yesterday finds that there has been a significant increase in spending at third level relative to the number of students.

However, a lack of matching increases at primary and second levels drew anger from teacher unions yesterday.

The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) said the fact that the 16% of national income per capita being spent on each second-level student was the lowest among 30 countries highlighted an urgent investment need to allow students compete in the global labour market.

Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) president Derek Dunne said the fact that overall spending on education remained at just 4.6% of national income highlighted the tremendous work being done by the education sector.

“These reports show time and time again that our students are among the best in the world, despite having some of the biggest classes and less Government investment,” he said.

At primary level, Education at a Glance found the average class size was 25 pupils, compared to an OECD average of 22. Despite the larger classes they sit in, Irish primary pupils receive 915 hours of teaching each year, more than 100 above the EU average and only shorter than in Australia, Italy and Scotland.

The country’s teachers are relatively well paid compared to their international counterparts, but the OECD reports recognises that the 25-year pay scale here can be a deterrent to young people entering the profession.

Ireland has one of the fastest ageing teaching populations, meaning we face a challenge to avoid future teacher shortages. The report found that 29% of second-level staff in 2001 were over 50, compared to just 23% three years earlier.

Education Minister Noel Dempsey acknowledged that Ireland remained behind a number of countries in terms of the amount of money spent on education relative to national income.

“We need to focus on increasing the resources we allocate to first and second level education, since these are the areas where our investment compares least favourably with that of many of the countries,” he said.

The minister welcomed the report’s description of improving numbers of the population with secondary education as significant but said there was a lot of room for improvement.

“The challenge now is to ensure the remaining fraction is not left behind, with the risk of social exclusion that this may entail,” he said.

He said the report recognised that the substantial investment in third-level education over recent years had resulted in a steady improvement in how our graduation rates compared with other OECD countries. But he said high levels of dropout from certificate and diploma courses were worrying.