European education budgets rising
According to Eurydice “high quality and authoritative data on education spending are needed to monitor trends and to feed the policy debate at national and European level.” Unfortunately, recent and complete information on this subject is still lacking and therefore Eurydice tries to get a complete picture of the education budgets for European countries.
“The lack of recent information on the public funding of education in Europe makes it difficult to assess and discuss the current changes in public investment in the education sector, to pinpoint the factors explaining these changes and to analyse recent reforms undertaken by countries in their budgetary framework,” Eurydice argues.
Eurydice notes that “in two thirds of the countries/regions examined, the education budget for 2014 (reported in June 2014) has increased by more than 1 % at current prices compared to the education budget for 2013 (reported in June 2013). Conversely, a decrease by more than 1 % can be registered in seven countries/regions (Austria, German-speaking Community of Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, Greece and Ireland).”
In Turkey, a significant increase in the education budget of about 7 % occurred as a result of investments in new schools as well as those under construction, an increase in the number of students and teachers, raises in education staff salaries and, finally, an increase in the budget allocated for services in specialeducation and guidance.
Hungary saw a rise in its budget due to two new programmes: the Teacher Promotion Scheme in which a significant raise in salaries for teachers is planned and the Structural Reform Fund for higher education. Overall, most countries see a small rise in education budgets for 2014. Read the report here
