This is according to the chapter "Financial resources invested in education" from the publication "Education in Israel - an international comparison" published this week by the Central Bureau of Statistics
After we told you (5/12/2008) that Classrooms in Israel are more crowded than the OECD average and teachers' salaries are half as low in terms of purchasing power, we discovered in the full report another worrying chapter in the report issued late last week by the Central Bureau of Statistics under the title: "Education in Israel - an international comparison"
Comparing the average expenditure per student at constant international prices (in purchasing power parity terms) shows that in Israel the average expenditure per student at all levels of education is lower than the average in the OECD member countries.
In pre-primary education, the education expenditure per student in Israel was $3,718, similar to Japan - $3,766, but less than the average expenditure in the OECD countries. In primary education, Israel spent $5,017 per student, similar to Finland and France, and similar to the OECD average of $5,055. In secondary education, the expenditure on education per student in Israel amounted to $5,959, and was lower than the average in the OECD countries - $6,936. In three countries - Mexico, Slovakia and the Czech Republic - the expenditure at this level was lower than in Israel.
In post-secondary institutions and higher education institutions, the expenditure on education per student in Israel reached $11,945, similar to the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany and Japan, and somewhat higher than the average in the OECD countries.
The ratio between the annual expenditure on education per student and GDP per capita, in pre-primary education and pre-academic preparatory schools, was relatively lower in Israel than the average of the OECD countries, and in the other levels of education it was similar or higher.
Comparing Israel's data with data from other countries for 2003, it is seen that the percentage of spending on education from GDP in Israel is higher than that of all the countries included in the comparison. In Israel, the national expenditure on education reached 8.5% of GDP compared to 5.9% in OECD member countries. In several countries - Iceland (8.0%), Korea (7.5%) and the United States (7.5%) the percentage of spending on GDP was close to that of Israel.
In this comparison, it should be taken into account that the percentage of young people in the population in Israel is relatively high compared to that of the OECD member countries, so that in Israel, on the one hand, the percentage of residents who work and can finance education is relatively small, and on the other hand, the percentage of students is relatively high. Hence, in dividing the expenditure on education by the number of students, the share of each student in Israel is relatively small compared to that in other countries.
Education news from the Weizmann Institute
For the report on the website of the Central Bureau of Statistics
