{"id":639429,"date":"2026-09-29T10:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T10:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/639429\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T10:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T10:30:10","slug":"ireland-spends-less-on-education-than-oecd-average-new-data-shows-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/639429\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland spends less on education than OECD average, new data shows \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland spends less on education<\/a> per student than the average across all OECD countries, new data shows. <\/p>\n

The data was contained in the Education at a Glance report, released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)<\/a> on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

It uses internationally comparable data on the structure, financing and performance of education systems across the 38 OECD member countries and other key partner countries.<\/p>\n

When looking at Government expenditure on education as a share of gross domestic product, the report found the average expenditure per student across the OECD countries was US$13,601 in 2023, while in Ireland it was US$13,113.<\/p>\n

In primary education<\/a>, expenditure per student was US$12,943 in 2023 in Ireland and US$12,893 on average across the OECD. <\/p>\n

In secondary education<\/a>, it was US$12,699 in Ireland and US$14,291 on average across the OECD.<\/p>\n

The data comes as Ministers negotiate what share of Budget 2027<\/a> their departments will get in the annual announcement, which takes place next Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The Department of Education<\/a> came under scrutiny this year for a \u20ac600 million \u201coverrun\u201d in its budget<\/a>, a spend that the department argued was required to cover teachers\u2019 wages and ordinary running costs.<\/p>\n

The department said in June this extra funding would be secured on an annual basis in a resetting of the base. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0School closures loom on separate days next month as teacher pay dispute escalatesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Education at a Glance report has a special focus on teacher shortages, examining their impact across countries and how education systems can respond.<\/p>\n

The report says teacher shortages often manifest in a higher share of non-fully qualified staff, or unfilled teaching posts.<\/p>\n

However, Ireland has one of the lowest rates of unqualified teachers across the entire OECD \u2013 second only to Korea, Japan and Hungary. <\/p>\n

In Ireland, 0.3 per cent of all primary and secondary teachers were not fully qualified in 2024\/25, well below the OECD average of 9.1 per cent.<\/p>\n

The report also found the number of primary teachers in Ireland increased by 27 per cent over the last seven years, while the number of students decreased by 1 per cent. <\/p>\n

This is much higher than the OECD average, where the number of teachers in primary schools rose by 13 per cent while the number of primary students rose by 2 per cent. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0As controversy grows over Leaving Cert reform, Northern Ireland is going the other wayOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

This represents a significant change in policy here toward smaller class sizes as the State caters for an increase in the diagnoses of children with additional needs. <\/p>\n

There are now almost 4,000 special classes across primary and post-primary schools in the Republic, almost double what there was six years ago.<\/p>\n

These are designed for children with special educational needs, including autism<\/a>, and have a lower student-to-teacher ratio than mainstream classes. <\/p>\n

The report shows Ireland has also made headway in keeping young people either in education or employment. <\/p>\n

Some 9 per cent of all 18- to 24-year-olds were neither employed nor in education or training (what the OECD calls NEET) in 2025, down from 18 per cent in 2015.<\/p>\n

For comparison, the average share of NEETs across OECD countries with available data for both years was 13 per cent in 2025 and 16 per cent in 2015.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland spends less on education per student than the average across all OECD countries, new data shows. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6128,5168,6466,1523,61,60,43,15016,28230,28205],"class_list":["post-639429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-autism","tag-budget","tag-department-of-education","tag-government","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-organisation-for-economic-co-operation-and-development-oecd","tag-primary-level","tag-second-level"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=639429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}