Israel's expenditure per student lower than OECD average

National expenditure on educational institutions in Israel reached 7.4% of the GDP, according to data from the Central Bureau of Statistics published on Thursday afternoon. In contrast, OECD countries are investing in educational institutions 6.5% of GDP.

The US ratio for this figure was similar to Israel at 7.3% of GDP. Although this figure seems positive, other data in the CBS report showed Israel lags in investment in education, in relation to developed countries.

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According to CBS, said that the data for Israel is influenced by the fact that the percentage of young people in the country is higher than in other OECD countries. Thus in Israel, the percentage of citizens who are working and can afford educations is relatively small, but on the other hand, there is a high percentage of students.

In 2010, the percentage of the Israeli population aged 0 up to 24 reached 43.4%. By way of comparison, the percentage of the population aged 0 to 24 in other OECD countries is much lower reaching only 28.1%. Thus, for example, the percentage of 24 year-olds and younger in the UK is 30.8%, and 24.1% in Italy.

Comparing expenditures on education by level of studies, it appears that the expenditures in Israel were high, especially in institutions of primary school education, post-primary and pre-university studies – at 4.3% of the GDP, compared to 3.8% in the OECD countries. Conversely, at institutions of secondary and higher education, the expenditure reached 1.7% of the GDP, low for OECD countries, where spending stands at 2.1%.

In the category of primary school education, post-primary and pre-academic, in Israel the percentage of public funding reached 92.4% in 2010, close to the 91.5% average in OECD countries for that year, and similar to the US rate of 92.3%.

Scandinavian countries finances education

Secondary education being funded by private sources is more common and reached 45.8% in Israel, much higher than the average of OECD countries, which stood at 31.6%, but still lower than some developed countries – the UK (74.8%), the United States (63.7%), South Korea (72.7%) and Australia (53.5%). However, in the social-democratic states of Scandinavia – private funding was extremely low: Iceland stood at 8.8%, Sweden at 9.4%, Finland at 4.1%, and Norway at only 4.0% in private funding.

Expenditure per student in primary education in Israel reached $5,758, similar to Slovakia, and was lower than the average in OECD countries, where it stands at $ 7,126. In post-primary education, the expenditure per pupil in Israel was $5,616, and this stood $3,000 lower than the average in OECD countries, which stood at $8,973. Only in three countries – Slovakia, Mexico and Turkey – was the expenditure lower than in Israel. Particularly high expenditures per student – more than $12,000 – were measured in the US, Norway, Austria and Luxembourg.

In educational institutions for secondary and higher education in Israel, expenditure per pupil was $10,730, much lower than the $17,665 average expenditure in OECD countries. In some countries (Mexico, Czech Republic, Korea, Slovakia, Iceland and Slovenia), expenditure was lower than $10,000.

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