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PPPs for policy making: a visual guide to using data from the ICP - Chapter 7: Education

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Education expenditures

Policy makers can assess the impact of investment in public education systems through the use of PPP-based measures of education expenditure from the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) (map 7.1).

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 looks to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. UNESCO has identified indicator SDG indicator 4.5.4 – PPP-based education expenditure per student by level of education and source of funding – to reflect the amount of resources invested on average in the education of a single student, going beyond government sources so that an actual unit cost can be calculated. Using a per student basis is useful for comparison, whether between levels of education, over time, or between countries (figure 7.1).

The ICP also calculates PPPs at the level of education and provides indicators on the price levels and expenditures on education, defined as household expenditure on pre-primary, primary, secondary, post-secondary, and tertiary education plus expenditure of nonprofit institutions serving households (NPISHs) on education plus general government expenditure on education benefits and reimbursements and the production of education services (figure 7.2).

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) publishes PPP-based data on the salaries of teachers and school heads to enable comparisons between countries and between different stages of an educator’s career, and can be used by policy makers to assess the disbursement of financial inputs into education against outcomes (figure 7.3).