asked the Minister for Education if secondary and community/comprehensive schools require additional funding and resources to bring them into line with the level of funding of second level vocational schools particularly having regard to the fact that between them secondary and community/comprehensive schools cater for more than 75 per cent of post primary pupils; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
Written Answers. - Schools Funding.
167.
I do not consider that secondary and community/comprehensive schools require additional funding as suggested by the Deputy. Nor do I accept that there is a serious anomaly between the financing of vocational and other schools. The bases on which funding and resources are provided for the different categories of schools are not directly comparable. My objective is to apportion the financial resources available to me for the financing of post-primary schools so that each type of school is enabled to perform its functions satisfactorily.
168.
asked the Minister for Education if the operating costs including the costs of adult education and some other educational services of secondary, community/comprehensive and second level vocational education committee schools as published by the Department of Finance in its comprehensive public expenditure programme; and the non-capital unit costs in education and training, as published by the National Planning Board Report of 1984 are accurate; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
The volume entitled "Comprehensive Public Expenditure Programmes 1986" (Pl. 4396) published by the Stationery Office was the fourth annual edition, the first having been published in 1983. In these volumes, public expenditure was taken to include the following expenditure on a gross basis:
(1) All Exchequer-financed expenditure;
(2) Expenditure financed from own resources of local authorities, health boards, non-commercial semi-State bodies and various funds such as the social insurance, occupational injuries and redundancy funds;
(3) Non-Exchequer financed expenditure of commercial semi-State bodies under the Public Capital Programme. (Expenditures and revenues associated with the trading activities of the commercial semi-State bodies are excluded.)
The administrative costs of an organisation running several programmes (e.g. a Department) were apportioned by programmes. ]These costs include direct pay costs and non-pay overhead costs such as travel, postage and telephones. The apportionment data should be treated as Estimates since the expenditures are not formally accounted for on a programme but on a Vote basis. It should be noted in particular that the costs attributed to vocational schools under the second level education programme include, in addition to costs of second level education, the costs of adult education and other educational activities of vocational education committees. It was not possible to separate the cost of the other activities from the cost of the second level programme. To this extent, the expenditures outlined overstate the cost of second level education activities.
The document "Proposals for Plan 1984-87" (Prl. 2309) published by the National Planning Board in April 1984 contains at page 291 a table entitled Non-capital Annual Unit Costs in Education and Training in respect of the years 1980 to 1983 inclusive. Separate unit costs were shown for secondary schools, technical schools/community colleges and community/comprehensive schools as well as a composite second level figure. Separate unit costs were included for AnCO training courses for unemployed. As the footnote to the table indicates, the unit costs in education and training shown are not exactly comparable. The former refers to annual expenditure per student, while the latter refers to annual expenditure per training place. Because of the shorter duration of training courses, typically more than one student would receive training for each training place provided. AnCO training allowances are included in the AnCO costs. The education data in the table represent comparable net current cost to the State per full time equivalent student of educational services provided in each of the establishments listed.
I accept the operating costs shown as valid and accurate.