The national recovery and resilience plans foresee significant funding for education systems. The challenge lies in making them effective and impactful.
Investing in education is arguably the most sustainable and in the long-run most impactful way to spend public funds. In the European Union (EU), however, the competence and funding for education lies with the EU Member States (MS). Nevertheless, the French Presidency of the Council of the EU made investing in education a priority, citing for example the need to increase the attractiveness of the teaching by offering better salaries that reflect the importance of the profession. Last year’s new strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training towards the European Education Area and beyond (ET 2030) also calls for “intensifying work on investment in education” with a focus on the education sector’s important role in facilitating the green and digital transitions. To this end, the French EU Council Presidency held a high-level conference in Paris on 15 February 2022. European Commission (EC) Vice-President Margarítis Schinás (Promoting our European Way of Life) stressed that there had never been a higher amount of investment available for education in Europe. He further put forward the ambition for the European Education Area (EEA) to become a global destination for students from all over the world.
At the conference in Paris, the EC and ministers also pointed to the unprecedented levels of funding in education through the EU’s numerous programmes like Erasmus+, the European Social Fund+, the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), the European Investment Bank (EIB) as well as national investments in education systems. While this is true, experts such as Nobel Laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz or Andreas Schleicher, OECD’s Director for Education and Skills, explained that there is no systematic link between the investment levels and educational outcomes per se. What is necessary is “quality investment” that is aligned with the needs of the education system and increases inclusion and equitable access to education. Joseph E. Stiglitz also highlighted that better educated individuals are more resilient and fare better in global crises, such as pandemics. He therefore advocated for investments in education and training to be exempt from the EU debt rule and not count towards the deficit threshold of 3% of GDP (cf. excessive deficit procedure).
It is undeniable that investing in education and training, fostering skills and competences, as well as personal development are beneficial for the economy and for society as a whole. All Member States have thus included education and skills measures in their National Recovery and Resilience Plans (see SwissCore article). All levels and sectors of education are covered and investments, notably in digital learning and infrastructure, green and modern physical infrastructure but also in teachers’ training, account for around 12% of total planned spending (equivalent to about €50 billion). In this regard, the EU wants to specifically highlight and study what is needed for effective quality investments, so that the €50 billion can have a lasting impact. An expert group on quality investment in education and training has been created at the EU level to help the Commission and the Member States identify those education and training policies that have the potential to boost education outcomes, and improve efficiency of spending (see SwissCore article). Their interim report (published on 19 January 2022) mentions four focus areas and presents recommendations for Member States to invest in a more effective and equitable way, notably: investing in teachers and trainers (including competitive teacher remuneration as well as good working conditions), investing in digital learning (combining digital with face-to-face learning), investing in management, infrastructure and learning environments (especially focusing on renovating educational facilities and upgrading learning environments), and lastly, fostering equity and inclusion (by providing more grants and scholarships for example). The final report of the expert group is expected for September 2022.
On the occasion of the French conference on Investing in Education, the EC announced the creation of a new ‘Learning Laboratory on Investments in Education’ to build on the work of the expert group. The laboratory should collect data, propose analysis and recommendations for quality investments in education and evaluate different education policies. The laboratory is set to be launched in autumn 2022 as a follow up of the final report of the expert group.
The EIB and the UNESCO representatives reminded the conference that despite the announcements, there is still a significant lack of national investment in education on all levels. More efforts need to be undertaken to achieve the ambition expressed by Heads of State or Government at UNESCO’s Global Education Meeting on 10 November 2021 where they adopted the Paris Declaration, calling to “allocate at least 4-6% of GDP and/or at least 15-20% of total public expenditure to education” and to “devote an adequate share of national stimulus packages to education”. A new follow-up declaration was announced by the French Education Minister at the end of the conference on 15 February 2022. His idea is to put the commitment of the EU Member States in writing to further the momentum regarding investing in education across Europe. The declaration should be unveiled in April 2022 with signatures from all EU Member States; the Finnish and the Slovenian governments already expressed their support for this declaration. As a point of reference, Switzerland spends 17.6% of public expenditure on education which corresponds to 5.4% of GDP (2018 figures).