Regional and case trends in education quality and youth development
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a drop in the percentage of Kosovo’s total budget expenditures from 23.4 per cent in 2001 to 13.5 per cent in 2004 and 12 per cent in 2006. From 2003, when services were fully decentralized to municipalities, to 2006, the total municipal budget for preschool, primary and secondary education increased about 15 per cent. In 2005, just 5 per cent of own-source resources collected in 30 of Kosovo’s municipalities were spent on education (Stubbs and Haxhikadrija, 2008, 12).
Georgia The decline in education funding for Georgia in the 1990s was severe, as seen in Figure 16. From spending 8 per cent of GDP on education in 1995, Georgia spent just about 3 per cent of its total GDP on education by the late 2000s, then the lowest expenditure rate in Europe and Central Asia, which averaged 4.4 per cent of GDP (UNICEF, 2009; World Bank, 2009, 11). Georgia’s total public expenditure on education as a percentage of total government expenditure decreased from 10 per cent in 1999 to 7 per cent in 2008 (UNESCO, 2011, 334). Despite a lower average level of spending on education, Georgia’s primary and secondary enrolment rates do not differ from others in the region. Georgia is also serving a declining school-age population, expected to contract 45 per cent between 2005 and 2050 (World Bank, 2009, 118). It nonetheless faces major challenges supporting a large number of teachers at the expense of capital investments (World Bank, 2009, 119). Full rehabilitation of Georgia’s schools would cost more than 10 times the annual state expenditure on education as a whole. The government has allocated more financial resources to education, health and social protection, mainly at the cost of reduced defence expenditure. As a result, the share of social expenditure within overall public spending has increased, as has the share of social expenditure in relation to gross domestic product. However, Georgia is still one of the lowest social spenders in the CEECIS region. Consequently, major challenges remain (UNICEF Georgia, 2011). For example, five-year-old children in the poorest families are significantly less likely to attend preschool than their peers in the richest families (less than 50 per cent of poor children attend preschool). Equity of opportunity begins in early childhood, and the Government of Georgia has the responsibility to ensure that every Georgian child receives the essential building blocks to make a meaningful contribution to economic, social and political development (UNICEF Georgia, 2011b). Figure 16. Public education expenditure in Georgia as a percentage of GDP, 1995–2009 9 8
8
7
Percent
6 5 4 2.9
3 2
3.0
2.7
2.9
2006
2007
2008
3.2
2.5
2.2
2.2
2.1
2.2
2.1
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
1 0 1995
2004
2005
2009
Year
ê
Data Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2010 Data are not available for the years 1996-98.
Source: UNESCO Institute Statistics, 2010. are not for of the years 1996–98. Totalfor public expenditure onData education as aavailable percentage GDP is the current and capital expenditures Total public expenditure on oneducation education a percentage GDP isgovernments, defined as the current and capital expenditures on education by local, byas local, regional andof national including municipalities (household contributions are excluded), (household expressed ascontributions a percentage of the GDP. regional and national governments, including municipalities are excluded), expressed as a percentage of the GDP.
Demand for Education Innovation: Adolescent and youth perspectives on education quality in the CEECIS Region
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