Expenditure on educational goods and services came to 2,145 million euros in the A.C. of the Basque Country, which is equivalent to 1,020 euros per inhabitant and represents 5% of the GDP, according to the EUSTAT Education Accounts 2001. Current expenditure consumed 93.4% of resources, while the remaining 6.6% was set aside for gross capital formation.

The most important item of current expenditure on education was “educational and training services” which covered 85.8% of total expenditure. The other items have a lower effect, and so complementary activities, such as catering and transport expenses represented 2.1% and 1.2% of the total, respectively; the purchase of school material and books and general administration of the education system accounted for 1.2% and 1.3% of total expenditure.

From the perspective of the direct financing of expenditure on education, public finance accounts for 78.4% of the total and the remaining 21.6% is private finance.

But this relation between public and private finance is not reproduced automatically for all items of expenditure: 83% of expenditure on educational services is through public finance, while financing the rest of current activities (transport, catering, books and material) is mainly private, 64% compared to 36% public finance.

The role of the Department of Education of the Basque Government is important, accounting for 78.6% of direct public finance. Families are also important to private finance, and are the origin of 82.1% of private funding.

With regard to the maintenance of installations and new investment, public finance covers 68% of spending, while private finance represents the remaining 32%.

Current expenditure (excluding investment) per pupil varies according to levels and/or cycles of education and educational models. Compulsory education, which includes primary and secondary obligatory education (ESO), has current expenditure per pupil of 4,349 euros, while current expenditure per pupil in non-compulsory education is 3,206 euros. The range of current expenditure per pupil in different educational models varies between 2,977 euros for university education, once we have discounted the part corresponding to research and 6,184 for technical training.

It is difficult to find homogeneous data to compare different countries on this subject, but the most used parameter by the OECD in comparative studies is “expenditure per student in educational establishment” (excluding training provided in other kinds of centres, such as companies and administration). As we can see in the following graph, the A.C. of the Basque Country is placed below Canada, Italy, Germany and France, but at the same time is 31% higher than the whole of the State, in terms of expenditure per student.

Methodology note: Not included in the scope of the education account are scientific and technological research activities (except for educational research and innovation), and therefore the part of the salaries corresponding to university teachers, which is imputable to research activities, has been withdrawn.