asked the Minister for Education the expenditure on education in Ireland and in other EC countries (a) per student in full-time education, expressed in ECU's and (b) per student at (i) primary, (ii) post-primary and (iii) third level, as a percentage of the gross domestic product.
Written Answers. - Expenditure on Education.
The most recent data for other EC countries available to my Department is given in the 1987 UNESCO Statistical Yearbook. An extract from this yearbook giving the most recent data on spending on education as a percentage of GNP is as follows:
Total Public Spending on Education in the EC
Country |
Year of Data |
Education Spending as % of GNP |
Belgium |
1985 |
6.1 |
Denmark |
1984 |
6.6 |
W. Germany |
1984 |
4.6 |
Greece |
1983 |
2.4 |
Spain |
1985 |
3.3 |
France |
1982 |
5.8 |
IRELAND |
1984 |
6.7 |
Italy |
1983 |
5.7 |
Luxembourg |
1983 |
5.6 |
Netherlands |
1984 |
6.9 |
Portugal |
1983 |
4.2 |
United Kingdom |
1984 |
5.2 |
Structural differences between the education systems of member states of the European Community and different methods of classifying pupils and teachers does not permit meaningful comparative per student costs at the different educational levels to be readily determined by my Department.