Efficiency of public expenditure on education in Croatia

Estonia, Poland, Slovakia, Lithuania and Latvia recorded better PISA 2009 results than Croatia with lower levels of expenditure on education. According to the Legatum Prosperity Index (2010), Croatia is placed 44th among 110 countries according to the education sub-index score. With regard to ten new EU member states, only Bulgaria had a lower education sub-index than Croatia. This may suggest that Croatia is faced with ineffi ciency in public spending on education, which can be partially explained by several facts. The number of teachers per 100 students is higher than the average of the observed 30 European countries, USA and Japan, indicating possibilities for savings by rationalization of teaching staff . Analysis showed a possible excess of a total of 4,942 teachers at all levels of education. According to adverse future demographic trends, these ineffi ciencies might become even higher. Teachers’ salaries should also be revised in order to compete with those in private sector, since they indirectly infl uence students’ performance and are very important for att racting, developing and retaining skilled and high-quality teachers. The analysis showed that mechanisms of the allocation of public resources targeted to education will inevitably have to be improved