The Costs and Financing of Education: Trends and Policy Implications

Abstract

This publication examines the provision of formal education in the developing member countries (DMCs) of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). It covers formal kindergarten, primary and secondary school, technical/vocational, and higher education systems. Government financing of education along with various forms of private, household, and community financing are examined. Distance education, especially at the tertiary level, is discussed, however training given by companies for their workers, supplementary adult education classes, and most other forms of nonformal and informal education are not included. The study begins with some background information on the countries being analysed, on groups of countries, and on the Asia and Pacific region as a whole. It then examines the scale of education and the volume of expenditures, highlighting the balance between government and nongovernment inputs, and noting changes over time. The following section discusses issues of unit costs and their determinants. It presents information on differences between and within levels of education, and discusses the policy implications of these differences. The debate on the respective roles of government and private sectors in the education sector is then summarised and trends in cost sharing and revenue generation at the system and institutional levels are examined. The scale and orientation of external aid for education in some countries and different strategies for different groups of countries are commented on. The final section summarises and concludes the study.

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