Studies in educational costs

Aims There were three interlinked aims. To devise a multi-functional cost-accounting system which could be used by Scottish Education Authorities. To analyse the costs of primary and secondary schools in sufficient functional detail to establish the costs of individual schools, different kinds of schools, different activities within schools and, where appropriate, different subjects within schools. To establish procedures for projecting and forecasting the costs of primary and secondary schools for five to ten years ahead. Procedure A multi-functional cost-accounting system v/as devised and applied to the accounts of all the schools in a typical Scottish Education Authority for the year 1964/5. Each account was coded according' to categories of a) school (including subdivisions into size and kind), b) school subject (for secondary schools), c) class of expense, d) value of expense. The data was stored on punched cards which were processed according to specific programmes to produce an analysis of the costs of education in that Education Authority. A simplified form of the accounting system was used on a sample of 14 schools in another Education Authority for the years 1961/2, 1964/5 and 1967/8. These investigations were complemented by analysis of the total expenditures of all Scottish Education Authorities for the years 1959 - 1963 and for individual Authorities for the years 1962/3 and 1965/6. Results 1) . Expenditures related to teaching staff dominate all other heads of current expenditure. Teachers' Salaries and related costs took up roughly 68% of expenditure allocable to Education Authorities in 1962/3, roughly 80% of expenditure allocable to individual primary and secondary schools in 1964/5 and roughly 90% of expenditure allocable to the 'Teaching function' of individual subject departments in 1964/5. (Chapters 3 and 4) 2) . Expenditure per pupil by the Education Authorities rose by 50% in real terms in the years 1959/60 - 1966/67. (Chapter 3) 3). Expenditures per pupil varied by as much as 100% over the 35 Education Authorities and the level of the unit expenditures related closely to the demographic/geographic nature of the Authority. (Chapter 3) 4). Expenditures per pupil, based on one Authority, were shown to b