Ireland is bottom of education spending class

Spending on education in the State continues to register well behind other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) states despite our increasing wealth, according to a new study.

The OECD report puts Ireland in joint bottom place in an international league table which links spending on each second-level student to overall wealth.

Ireland is grouped with Mexico, Greece and the Slovak Republic, joint last of 30 OECD countries.

John White of the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland (ASTI) expressed his dismay with the finding last night: "We should be near the top of the league, not at the bottom," he said.

Overall, Ireland spends 4.6 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP ) on education compared with the OECD average of 5.8 per cent.

But the report, Education at a Glance 2007, also provides some encouraging news.

Ireland is in the top three most socially equitable countries in terms of educational outcomes and access to higher education.

Moreover, 91 per cent of Irish 25-34-year-olds had completed at least upper second-level education, compared with an OECD average of 82 per cent.

The survey shows how many poorer states invest more heavily in education.

For example, Italy spends one-third more on its schools - even though it has, per capita, only 75 per cent of the wealth of Ireland.

Other main findings include:

Ireland spends 40 per cent less per child than Denmark, Norway and the US and 60 per cent less than Luxembourg;

France, Italy, Japan and Germany substantially outspend Ireland in primary education;

The pupil-teacher ratio continues to lag behind the majority of OECD countries. Only four countries have higher pupil-teacher ratios than Ireland from a total of 27 countries;

On average, teachers' pay is among the highest in the OECD; The school year at second level is the shortest in the OECD;

The number of science graduates per 100,000 of population aged 25-34, and in employment, was the second-highest of any OECD country.

At third-level Ireland had the sixth-highest level of increase in spending across the OECD.

The report also shows how Ireland spends far less on primary education than on other parts of the education system. For every €5 spent at primary, €7 is spent at second level and €10 at third level.

John Carr, of the INTO, said the spending deficit explained why "Irish pupils remain in the second most overcrowded classes in the EU.

Chronic underfunding means primary schools must continue to fundraise through raffles, cake sales and charity walks".

In a response, Minister for Education Mary Hanafin focused on more positive findings, specifically the credit given by the OECD to the huge relative increase in education spending in Ireland in the past decade and more.

She also highlighted the €32 billion investment planned for the education sector in the National Development Plan.

Tim O Meara, president of the Teachers' Union of Ireland, said the Government can attempt to spin the findings of this report, but these new figures show Ireland is languishing deep in the "relegation zone" of a list of OECD countries in terms of funding.

Serious questions need to be asked as to why funding for education has been allowed to stagnate despite our continued economic wellbeing, he added.