Why education needs billions
Unnecessary actions, because education already receives so much extra money. That is the constant message of the Rutte III cabinet to teaching staff. But is that justified? No. Education expenditure per participant is declining, what the Netherlands has left for education in relation to prosperity confirms this picture.
Picture: Type tank
'Education is the sector that will receive the most in this cabinet term', is the response of the Ministry of Education to the action announcement of AOb and FNV Education and Research. It is a story that the Rutte III cabinet has maintained from the start. But is that enough to make up for any arrears? Is that positive or negative in relation to inflation or economic growth?
In the report 'Insight into and accountability of tuition fees' of July 2018, the Education Council believes in any case that the ministry presents things too rosy. 'According to the ministry's annual reports, expenditure per participant has increased in all educational sectors in recent years. This increase is greatest in basic education, where the biggest voices are heard about insufficient resources. If we look at the expenditure per participant as calculated by Statistics Netherlands, however, we do not see an increase in the government contributions per student for primary and secondary education and there does not appear to be an overall increase in government expenditure. '
Other conclusions
It was a reason for the Education Council to start calculating itself and based on this the Council arrived at completely different conclusions. 'We only see a consistent increase over time for secondary vocational education. The other sectors show a stable or even (slightly) declining trend over the past few years. ' If we look at the exact figures, the picture is what the AOb concerns to be called even gloomier.
| Expenses per participant | 2009 | 2016 | Absolutely 2016-2009 | % 2009-2016 |
| Primary school | 7.443 | 7.130 | -313 | -4% |
| Secondary education | 10.731 | 10.273 | -458 | -4% |
| Secondary MBO education | 12.795 | 13.413 | 618 | 5% |
| Higher vocational education | 12.295 | 11.702 | -593 | -5% |
| Scientific education | 30.100 | 27.731 | -2.369 | -8% |
Source: Education Council 2018
With the exception of MBO, there was a significant decrease per participant in all educational sectors between 2009 and 2016. Corrected for inflation, this is a decrease of 4 to 8 percent in most sectors. We also know the reason for this: in almost that entire period, salaries in education were the zero line. Together with all previous cuts in salaries, education staff has lost around 4,7 billion euros in twenty years, according to the report 'Evaluation reference model' of the Ministry of the Interior from July 2017.
And even if it concerns figures after the decimal point, these are large amounts
Welfare
But that image concerns the period until this current coalition took office. There are no more recent reliable figures per participant, but there are figures about what the Netherlands has left for education in relation to our prosperity, the gross domestic product (GDP). Figures that are also used by the international economic think tank Oeso. We use the multi-year key figures of the Central Plan Bureau (CPB) for the past ten years.
| 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | |
| % education in relation to gross domestic product (GDP) | 5,5 | 5,5 | 5,4 | 5,3 | 5,3 | 5,3 | 5,3 | 5,3 | 5,2 | 5,1 | 5* |
Source: CPB key figures and MEV 2019
The CPB figures support the picture that the Education Council describes for a shorter period: as a country we have less and less to spend on education. And even if it concerns figures after the decimal point, it concerns large amounts. 0,1 percent less for education means 700 million euros less. Half a percent less in ten years is therefore 3,5 billion euros less.
Inadequate
Moreover, the CPB is not very optimistic about 2019 and sees in the Multi-Year Economic Outlook for 2019, despite the government's investment in education, the share of education relative to prosperity continues to decline. Education may receive the most in absolute terms in 2018, but this is relatively insufficient to maintain education expenditure.
