Few Government departments have faced pre-Budget skirmishes as fierce as those surrounding the Department of Education this year. An overspend of €640 million led Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers to recoup €446 million through a levy on other departments. The row has intensified pressure on Minister for Education Hildegarde Naughton, who argues the real problem is persistent, systemic underfunding of schools. Meanwhile, teachers’ unions and parents’ groups say more resources are needed to reduce class sizes and meet growing demand for special education.
Tuesday’s publication of the OECD’s Education at a Glance report, which compares spending and outcomes at every level across its 38 member countries, brings welcome clarity to the argument, though not all of its findings will be welcomed. Measuring government expenditure per student, adjusted for purchasing power, it places Ireland slightly below the OECD average. Beneath that headline lie some intriguing results. Spending per primary pupil is marginally above average, while at secondary it falls well short. Ireland is one of few countries to spend less per student at secondary than at primary. Third-level funding also lags, with the State meeting 58 per cent of the cost of degree-level education, against an OECD average of 68 per cent.
Nonetheless, Ireland’s educational outcomes are impressive. Almost six in 10 adults hold a third-level qualification, against an OECD average of 43 per cent. Just 4 per cent of 25 to 34-year-olds lack an upper secondary qualification, down from 9 per cent a decade ago. The proportion of 18 to 24-year-olds neither working nor in education or training has halved since 2015 to 9 per cent, well below the OECD figure of 13 per cent.
Despite recent talk of teacher shortages, Ireland outperforms most countries in recruiting and retaining qualified staff. Only 0.3 per cent of teachers are not fully qualified, compared with 9.1 per cent across the OECD, and just 2.1 per cent left the profession in 2024/25, a third of the international rate. Irish teachers earn less than other graduates, but the gap is narrower than in much of Europe. Less creditable is the imbalance in leadership, with women making up 84 per cent of primary teachers but only 62 per cent of school management.
RM Block
Interest groups will doubtless cherry-pick these findings. The Department has already done so, celebrating progression and employment outcomes while ignoring the spending comparisons. But the report also flags a looming challenge. The population aged five to 14 is projected to shrink by 17 per cent by 2033, reducing the number of teachers required. Whether the State responds by cutting posts or by further reducing class sizes will be a telling test of its priorities.
