440 P. Tsakloglou, M. Antoninis Economics of Education Review 18 1999 439–452
Table 1 The structure of the Greek education system
Primary education 1.
Basic education: Primary school Ages 6–11
Compulsory Duration of studies: 6 years
Secondary education 1.
Lower secondary education: Gymnasium Ages 12–14
Compulsory
a
Duration of studies: 3 years 2.
Upper secondary education: Lyceum Ages 15–17
Non-Compulsory Duration of studies: 2–3 years
a. General Lyceum 65 of students b. Technical–Vocational Lyceum 22 of students
c. Technical–Vocational School 8 of students d. Integrated Lyceum 5 of students
Tertiary education 1.
Higher Education Institutions: Universities Duration of studies: 4–6 years
2. Technological Education Institutions
Duration of studies: 3 years
a
During the period 1991–1994, the drop-out rate from lower secondary education was on average 8.9 Paleokrassas, Vretakou Rousseas, 1996.
of public education in Greece as well as estimates of this impact for each educational level separately, using the
information of the 198788 Household Budget Survey. The remainder of the paper is organised as follows. The
next section provides a short description of the structure of the Greek education system. Section 3 is concerned
with methodological issues, while Section 4 presents the empirical results. Finally, Section 5 concludes the paper
and discusses its possible policy implications.
2. Structure of the Greek education system
According to the Greek constitution, education is pro- vided free of charge at all levels. A limited number of
private schools operate at the first two levels, whereby enrolment rates fluctuate around 6–7 for primary
schools and 4–5 for secondary schools. At the tertiary level, in particular, degrees offered from private insti-
tutions, which are treated as commercial enterprises rather than educational institutions, are not officially
recognised as equivalent to those of public institutions. The structure of the Greek education system is summar-
ised in Table 1.
Graduates of the General and Integrated Lyceums are eligible to take part in the general examinations to enter
the Higher Education Institutions, which operate under a numerus clausus status. Graduates of all types of upper
secondary schools apart from the technical–vocational schools may also enter the Technological Education
Institutions, either by participating in the general exam- inations or on the basis of their school certificate record.
It is estimated that about one-third of the candidates suc- ceed in entering the 18 Universities and 12 Technologi-
cal Education Institutions of Greece every year.
Private demand for higher education is strong. As a result of the households’ keen interest in the general
examinations, a very large number of private, costly crammer schools assisting the candidates have sprouted,
operating in parallel with the official education system but, in fact, substituting it in many respects. Moreover,
the insufficient number of places in Greek higher edu- cation institutions and the underdevelopment of post-
graduate studies leads a growing number of students to foreign universities, estimated at a staggering 20 of the
domestic student population compared to 1–5 for all other countries of the European Union. This high
demand is recorded despite a growing rate of unemploy- ment of university graduates relative to the less well edu-
cated Kanellopoulos, 1996 and low estimated returns to university education Psacharopoulos, 1982
2
.
2
It is interesting to note that, even though not strictly compa- rable, the works of Psacharopoulos 1982; Tsakloglou 1992,
1993, 1997 reach different conclusions. Psacharopoulos reports relatively low private returns to tertiary education in Greece
in comparison to other countries, whereas Tsakloglou reports considerable differences in the living standards of households
headed by tertiary education graduates and the rest of the popu- lation even after controlling for factors such as age, region and
sector of employment. Nevertheless, both authors agree that the expansion of the education system in recent years led to a nar-
441 P. Tsakloglou, M. Antoninis Economics of Education Review 18 1999 439–452
Table 2 Cost structure of the Greek public education system, 1987–1988
No. of Current spending
a
Investment Total
Average spending students
spending
b
spending
a
per student Ministry of
Ministry of Current
Total Education
Interior Primary education
Total no. of students 1 023 581
100.00 Public schools
962 232 94.01
72 955 618 4 352 726
14 703 889 92 012 233
80 343 95 624
Private schools 61 349
5.99 Secondary education
Total no. of students 846 658
100.00 Public schools
808 539 95.50
81 640 755 12 340 636 13 319 444 107 300 835
116 236 132 709
Private schools 38 119
4.50 Tertiary education
Total no. of students 183 242
100.00 44 058 355
12 487 222 56 545 577
240 438 308 584
Universities 117 193
63.96 34 160 332
9 465 557 43 625 889
291 488 372 257
Technological 66 049
36.04 9 898 023
3 021 667 12 919 690
149 859 195 608
Education Institutions
a
In thousands of current drachmas.
b
Average spending of the 10 preceding years in thousands of 1988 drachmas. Source: Ministry of Finance 1989.
Current public spending on education is managed by two ministries. The bulk more than 90 of the total,
which relates to the payment of teachers’ salaries, text- books, mess allowances and scholarships is channelled
via the Ministry of Education. A small amount less than 10 of the total covering transport, schools’ mainte-
nance and rent costs, is administered by the Ministry of Interior and the local authorities. Investment expenditure
is managed through the Public Investment Budget and, as could be anticipated, exhibits a fluctuating pattern
Antoninis Tsakloglou, 1997. For this reason, instead of current investment, in our analysis we use a moving
average of the investment level of the 10 years preceding each particular year, thus implicitly assuming that capital
investments in education depreciate constantly within a 10-year period.
Table 2 provides an overview of the Greek education system in 198788 in terms of numbers of students both
in public and
private schools, total
expenditure distinguished
between current
and investment
expenditure stated in current 1988 thousand drachmas and average yearly cost per student attending a public
school in current 1988 drachmas for each of the three
rowing of differentials between tertiary education graduates and the rest of the population; see, also, Lambropoulos and Psachar-
opoulos 1992.
levels of the education system. The analysis of the distri- butional impact of public education spending is based on
the information included in this table.
3. Data and methodology
