Working Group

Education Expenditure

This working group will support the development and implementation of guidelines for producers and users of education expenditure data, contributing to the harmonization of data from different sources.

 

The key issues related to the availability and use of education expenditure data are:

  • Weak adoption of the national education accounts (NEA) methodological framework.
  • Public expenditure data have low country coverage, are not comprehensive (missing spending at local government level,  especially if they result from fiscal transfers), are not disaggregated (by level of education or by spending category), have time lags, and double count fiscal transfers.
  • Non-articulation of public expenditure and aid to education data.
  • Low coverage and frequency of private expenditure data on both public and private schools:
    • Lack of coverage of direct subsidies to private schools.
    • Lack of information by income or wealth quintile of citizens.

Indicator priorities

  • Framework for Action indicators: Expenditure as percentage of GDP/total public expenditure
  • 4.5.3: Extent to which formula-based policies reallocate resources to disadvantaged populations
  • 4.5.4: Education expenditure per student by level of education and source of funding
  • Mapping of current information to a simplified national education accounts (NEA)