Education Public Expenditures

• In Event: Financing education: an overview of the landscape

Proposal

Discussions of education finance must go beyond the source and size of financing. Research shows that questions of how resources are allocated, used, and accounted – rather than simply how much money is allocated or spent – are critical to improving learning gains. Further, research has also shown that spending more on education does not necessarily lead to better learning outcomes. Instead, questions of how money is spent and where it is targeted are equally important. Vietnam, for example, has achieved high learning outcomes at the primary and secondary levels on a relatively low per capita budget. Governments and donors must approach these questions of how and where resources are devoted (e.g.: primary over secondary education; public over private) by looking at the education sector holistically, and must be viewed from a systems approach. As the World Bank says, “the goal of expanding educational opportunity for all students is inextricably linked to questions of education finance: How much do countries invest in education? How do governments support schools? What is the role of the private sector, including households, in education? What are the appropriate financing arrangements for an effective allocation of public funds? How should resources be spent in schools to maximize student learning?” (World Bank, “SABER - Social Finance Objectives and Conceptual Approach”, p. 3.) These are questions that will be discussed in this panel.

This presentation will look at how public resources are used, and the tools and resources available to assess public financing for education. “Public expenditure reviews are one of the World Bank’s core diagnostic tools for informing various stakeholders about the state of education nancing in a country. Such reviews assess the efficiency, effectiveness, and equity of expenditures on education and their adequacy and sustainability relative to the country’s educational goals. They review not only public spending, but also private and donor spending.” (World Bank, “Education Public Expenditure Review Guidelines”, (2017), p. iv.) These tools and the Bank’s broader analysis will be reviewed in this presentation.

Author

• Samer al Samarrai, World Bank