SLOVAKIA belongs among the countries which spend comparatively little on education. While about one half of the member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) contributed more than 6 percent of GDP to education in 2011, Slovakia allocated less than 5 percent, the Education at Glance 2014 report showed.
The report also revealed that Slovakia allocated 1 percent of its GDP to university education, similar to Brazil (0.9 percent), Hungary (1 percent) and Italy (1 percent), the SITA newswire reported on September 10.
The OECD also stated in its report that education is becoming more accessible to more people and that the number of literate adults is increasing. About 40 percent of adults on average completed a higher level of education than their parents. Moreover, women are more ambitious when it comes to education than men, the report showed.
Another finding reveals that up to 58 percent of young adults want to achieve a higher vocational education. On the other hand, only 3 percent of young adults want to complete post graduate-level education. In nearly all OECD countries the most popular specialisations are social sciences, economics and law.
The report also showed that more than one half of adults are involved in education. While in Denmark, Sweden and Finland two out of three adults are studying, in Slovakia the share is one in three and in Italy one in four adults, SITA reported.
The study also showed that pre-school education has a significant impact on a student’s success in school. Fifteen-year-old students who spent at least one year in pre-school have better results than their peers who did not attend pre-school.
Moreover, the level of education completed has a big impact on employment. More than 80 percent of adults on average who graduated from higher vocational education are employed, compared to 60 percent of those who graduated from grammar schools.
However, even educated people are not immune to unemployment, the report showed. The OECD reported about 5 percent of adults aged 25-34 with higher vocational education, on average, were unemployed in 2012. The unemployment of their peers without higher secondary school education increased to 19.8 percent in 2012. In 2008 this was only 13.6 percent, the report showed, as reported by SITA.
This study shows that the global economic crisis has impacted young people and low-qualified adults the most.
Source: SITA
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
