School with library

Principals reported a lack

School

of sufficient library materials

with

hinders instruction

no library

“to some extent” or “a lot”

“very little” or “not at all”

Total

52% Students borrow books for school-related

Students borrow books for pleasure

activities

Note: the oecD averages are shown. for the results by country, see table IV.3.24.

PISA 2009 ReSultS: WhAt MAkeS A School SucceSSful? – VoluMe IV

How scHooling is organised

this information was combined to create a composite index of material resources such that the index has an average of zero and a standard deviation of one for the oecD countries. higher values indicate less hindrance of instruction due to a lack of resources. It is best to be cautious when analysing these results: school principals within and across countries might have different benchmarks to judge the lack of instructional resources within their schools. Nonetheless, these responses provide valuable information on the school leaders’ ability to provide what they consider to be necessary for quality instruction.

School principals in Switzerland, the united States, Japan, Slovenia, the united kingdom, Australia and Iceland were less likely to have reported that instruction in school is hindered by a lack of adequate material resources, while school principals in turkey and Mexico were more likely to have reported this. Although school systems vary in the extent to which a lack of material resources may hinder instruction, countries differ in the extent to which they perceive this as

a problem. School principals across the school system in Norway, the czech Republic, estonia, turkey and Denmark have relatively similar opinions concerning how a lack of material resources hinders instruction within their schools. In contrast, these opinions vary widely in Mexico, chile, Australia, Ireland and Israel (table IV.3.23).

Among the partner countries and economies, school principals in Singapore, liechtenstein, Dubai (uAe) and hong kong-china were less likely to have reported that a lack of adequate material resources hinders instruction in their schools. this view was more commonly reported in kyrgyzstan, Indonesia, colombia and Peru. Yet schools vary in the extent to which school principals reported this problem. the variation is greatest in Panama, Argentina and Peru, and relatively modest in Montenegro, lithuania, latvia and Bulgaria.

Spending on education

Spending on educational resources as discussed above can be summarised in overall spending per student. Depending on the way resources are allocated, this financial investment can take the form of buildings and infrastructure, salaries paid to teachers, administrators and support staff, and transportation and meals for students. for a student, these resources are allocated throughout his or her educational career, and countries spend different amounts per student. total expenditure by educational institutions per student from age 6 to 15 exceeds uSD 100 000 (PPP-corrected dollars) in luxembourg, the unites States, Switzerland and Norway. In luxembourg, cumulative expenditure per students exceeds uSD 150 000. In contrast, in turkey, Mexico, chile, the Slovak Republic and Poland, cumulative expenditure per student over this period is less than uSD 40 000. In Mexico and chile, cumulative expenditure is less than uSD 25 000 per student; and in turkey, cumulative expenditure is less than uSD 13 000 dollars per student (table IV.3.21b).

Country profiles in resources invested in education

to summarise the results and patterns of spending on education across countries, this section presents the results of

a latent profile analysis. this analysis groups countries according to the amount of resources they invest in education as measured by cumulative expenditure. countries are also grouped according to how these resources are invested: whether priority is given to teachers’ salaries or to providing smaller classes and better infrastructure. While other resources for education, such as time and extra-curricular activities, are considered important in understanding schooling, oecD data indicate that most spending is directed either towards increases in teachers’ salaries or smaller class size (oecD, 2010a).

oecD countries can be grouped into four categories, depending on the amount of resources they invest and the spending choices they make (figure IV.3.7). countries may invest relatively small or large amounts of resources in education, and each of these countries may choose to focus this investment on factors such as teachers’ salaries or smaller class size. Most oecD countries prioritise smaller class sizes: the czech Republic, estonia, Greece, hungary, Israel, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic and turkey spend less on education and focus limited resources on smaller class sizes; Australia, Austria, Belgium, canada, Denmark, finland, france, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the united kingdom and the united States spend more on education and also focus resources on smaller classes. only four oecD countries prioritise teachers’ salaries: two of these countries, Mexico and chile, spend relatively small amounts on education and two, Japan and korea, invest relatively large amounts in education.

All partner countries and economies are classified in the groups that spend relatively less on education. the partner countries and economies vary more with respect to how they invest their resources: 21 partner countries and economies focus their investment on smaller class sizes while 10 partner countries and economies focus their investment on higher salaries for teachers.

84 © OECD 2010 PISA 2009 ReSultS: WhAt MAkeS A School SucceSSful? – VoluMe IV

How scHooling is organised

the average student performance between two oecD countries that invest heavily in education and privilege spending on teachers’ salaries is 530 points, and only 10% of the variation in performance is explained by students’ socio-economic background (table IV.1.1a, table IV.1.1b and table IV.1.1c).

• figure IV.3.7 •

How school systems allocate resources for education

Small class size and/or low teachers’ salaries

Large class size and high teachers’ salaries

Class size for the language of instruction: 23

Class size for the language of instruction: 36

Teachers’ salaries relative to GDP/capita 1 : 172 Low cumulative

Teachers’ salaries relative to GDP/capita 1 : 118

Cumulative expenditure

hungary, Greece, Israel, New Zealand, 2 Portugal, Slovak Republic, turkey,

czech Republic, estonia, 3 chile, Mexico,

expenditure on by educational institutions

Poland, 2

Brazil, colombia, hong kong-china, 3 2 Jordan, Indonesia,

education per student aged 6 to 15:

Albania, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, croatia,

Macao-china, Shanghai-china, Singapore, 2

USD 39 463

Dubai (uAe), kazakhstan, kyrgyzstan, latvia,

chinese taipei, thailand

liechtenstein, lithuania, Montenegro, Panama, Peru, Qatar, Romania, Russian federation, Serbia, tunisia,

trinidad and tobago, uruguay

High cumulative Cumulative expenditure

Australia, 2 Austria, Belgium, 2 canada, 3 Denmark, finland, 3 Japan, 3 korea 3

expenditure on by educational institutions

france, Germany, Iceland, 3 Ireland, Italy, luxembourg,

education per student aged 6 to 15:

Norway, 3 Netherlands, 2 2 Slovenia, Spain, Sweden,

USD 81 238

Switzerland, united kingdom,

united States

Note: the estimates in the grey cells indicate the average values of the variables used in latent profile analysis in each group. See Annex A5 for technical details. 1.this is the weighted average of upper and lower secondary teachers. the average is computed with weighting teachers’ salaries for upper and lower secondary education according to the respective 15-year-old students enrolment (for countries with valid information on both if 15-year-old students are both at the upper and lower secondary schools).

2. Perform higher than the oecD average in reading.

3. Perform higher than the oecD average in reading and where the relationship between students’ socio-economic background and reading performance is weaker than the oecD average. Source: oecD, PISA 2009 Database.

12 http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/888932343399

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How scHooling is organised

School with library