Percentage distribution of public current expenditure on education by level
Definition: Public current expenditure for each level of education, expressed as a percentage of total public current expenditure on education.
Purpose: To show how financial resources for education have been distributed across the different levels or stages of education. It measures the relative emphasis of government spending on a particular level of education within the overall educational expenditure.
Calculation method: Divide public current expenditure devoted to each level of education by the total public current expenditure on education, and multiply the result by 100.
Data required: Total public current expenditure on education; current public expenditures by level of education.
Data source: Annual financial reports prepared by the ministry of finance; national accounts reports by the central statistical office and financial reports from the various government departments engaged in educational activities especially the ministry of education.
Type of disaggregation: By level of administration, geographical location (region, urban/rural) and by various purposes of current expenditures (emoluments, teaching materials, scholarships, welfare services, etc.).
Interpretation: Relatively high percentage of current expenditures devoted to a specific level of education denotes the priority given to that level in national educational policy and resource allocation. When interpreting this indicator, one may also take into account the corresponding distribution of enrolment by level and then assess the relative current expenditure per student.
Quality standards: This indicator should be based on consistent data on current expenditure for each level of education that cover public funding for both public and private educational institutions at all levels of the educational administration. The sum of the percentage distributions for all levels of education should add up to 100%.
Limitations: In some instances data on current public expenditure on education refers only to the ministry of education, excluding other ministries that spend a part of their budget on educational activities. In some cases education programs funded with external loans or external grants include current expenditures that are misclassified as capital expenditures.