Education funds missing the mark
Greece provides the highest proportion of state funding to its education sector out of a total of 23 developed countries examined in a recent survey by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), although Greek citizens pay more than their European counterparts for education, suggesting that the efficiency of the Greek state system leaves much to be desired. According to the OECD report, the Greek government contributes 98.6 percent of the country’s total expenditure for education while the remaining 1.4 percent is made up from student scholarships and grants. This is a considerably higher proportion than the average 82.4 percent of funding for education contributed by 22 of the 30 OECD countries surveyed in the report. In the case of these countries, a further 10.2 percent is covered by scholarships and grants, while the remaining 7.4 percent is contributed by student loans. Meanwhile, statistics from Greece’s main labor grouping, GSEE, show that Greeks pay more than their European counterparts for education, some 2.4 percent of their monthly budget. Greek families pay a total of 4.37 million euros from their collective pocket toward education every year, according to GSEE’s educational policy unit. Although the Greek state spends the most on education, according to the OECD report, it is also among the OECD countries that give the least cash to students in the form of grants and scholarships. The report also highlights Greece – along with Turkey – as having the highest proportion of students who fail to complete their studies within the allocated period. In Greece only two out of 10 students finish their studies on time as compared to more than half (55 percent) in Ireland.
