View source for Which is the cost structure of schools?

Spending by public-sector educational institutions falls into two main categories � current expenditure and
capital expenditure. Current expenditure includes wages and costs relating to staff and �other current
expenditure� such as the costs of maintaining buildings, purchasing educational materials and operational
resources. One can see from analysis of the categories of expenditure that spending on staff overshadows
all the other categories.<br>

Current expenditure represents more than 85 % of total expenditure by public-sector institutions in nearly all
countries, the exception being Greece in which the share of current expenditure is slightly below 80 %. In all
countries staff costs represent the largest share of total expenditure on education, namely an average of
71 % of annual expenditure in the EU-27. The proportion is more around 85 % in Belgium and Portugal.
However, there remain significant differences between countries in terms of the proportion of capital
expenditure. Some countries, such as Belgium, Austria and Portugal, allocate almost all their resources to
current expenditure, thereby confining capital expenditure to less than 5 %. In contrast, capital expenditure
amounts to around 21 % in Greece, reflecting significant investment in infrastructure.