Government Expenditure on Education and Its Impact on Access: A Narrative of the Czech Republic

Abstract

The paper presents a pictorial trend of the Czech government's educational expenditure on education as a percentage of the country’s GDP from 1998 to 2017. It begins with a brief profile of the country and its educational system. Its primary concern is focused on the government's funding source of education; how much percentage of the GDP is spent on education; how much is spent on each student; how these funds are spent; which of the levels of education receives more funding; and how this funding affects educational access at all the levels of education in the country. In an attempt to achieve the research aim, the study employed descriptive statistics to examine and analyze the funding trends at the various levels of education and their impact on enrolments using secondary data from the UNESCO Institute Statistics website. The study reveals taxation from the public as the main source of funding for education; the decentralized system is used to fund education; and the average expenditure between 1998 and 2017 is 3.5% lower than the OECD average of 5%. The findings further reveal that the Czech government's gross expenditure on education as a whole increased steadily over the years, even though it has been below the average standard of 5% of the OECD for the period of study. The government spent more on secondary education than the other levels, and lastly, government funding on education has a significant impact on students’ gross enrolment, especially at the secondary and tertiary levels.