The Economics of Adult Education

Desjardins, R. (in press, 2013). The economics of adult education: A critical assessment of the state of adult education. In Nesbit, T., & Welton, M. (eds). Adult Learning in a Precarious Age. Josey-Bass. The economics of adult education: A critical assessement of the state of investement in AE Richard Desjardins Introduction Adult education (AE) is a key component of any development strategies that seek to ensure the long term well being of nations. Yet, with few exceptions most countries are characterized by systemic underinvestment in AE. It is no easy task to achieve adequate levels of investment in AE, which reflect an appropriate balance of costs and benefits, take account of market failures and distribute access in ways consistent with concerns for human welfare. A major obstacle is the lack of data to convincingly communicate the benefits of AE. OECD (2007) noted the difficulties of measuring the benefits to AE within a coherent framework. This chapter assesses critically the state of investment in AE by summarizing the state of financing in AE worldwide, reviewing achievements since the 1997 Hamburg Declaration on Adult Education, and considering results of the 2009 CONFINTEA VI conference in Belem. It outlines key problems and constraints as well as ways forward. Investment in AE Availability of consistent, comparable and reliable data on investment in AE is rare. The following attempts to assess variations between countries and progress over time since the 1997 Hamburg Declaration. Examples of available data are used to illustrate the nuances and difficulties of obtaining an accurate snapshot of the state of investment in AE. Total investment. Available data reveals that total investment in AE varies substantially across countries and the worlds regions. One major source of difference is the higher level of investment by non-government sources in high income countries. Table 1 helps to put this into perspective using Germany as an example. Data from Denmark and Sweden show that total spending on AE was about 1% and 4.9% of GDP in 1998, respectively, while in Spain it was about 0.4% in 2001 (OECD, 2003a). These figures include public and private spending but are not comparable because each country has a different concept of what to include. For example, Sweden included in-service training in their estimate which explains why it dwarfs the others. Other estimates can include indirect spending including foregone taxes, wage costs during training periods, and individual opportunity costs, which can be substantial. Austria estimated indirect spending on AE was about 1.2% of GDP in 2004 (UNESCO, 2008a). Estimates over time suggest downward pressure on investment in AE in some high income countries since the 1997 Hamburg Declaration. Expenditure on AE is estimated to have fallen in Germany from about 1.5% of GDP in 1996 to about 1% in 2006 (see Table 1). This trend should be interpreted with caution, however, since systematic accounting of AE expenditures does not exist, and there are no standards or common definitions for establishing comparability. To put the scale of investment in AE into perspective, it is useful to contrast it with public expenditures on education. As a world average, public expenditures on education were about 5% of GDP in 2005, up from the world average of 4% in 1998 (World Bank, 2007). This remains less than the 6% that is recommended, which is achieved by very few countries (Global Campaign for Education, 2005). Government. Governments tend to invest about 1% of public education budgets on AE, but wide variations exist and often it is a small fraction of 1% (Archer, 2007). Despite being too low, there are signs of downward pressure. Table 1 shows that public expenditure in Germany fell from about 1.7% in 1996 to about 1.3% in