How much does education cost? BECKER study seeks to find answers

Published on Wednesday, 04 September 2013 13:39

Everybody knows that education is expensive, but how much exactly do parents and local governments spend on education ? How much money comes from the state budget, and how much from private institutions? Answers to these and other questions will be possible owing to the BECKER study carried out by IBE. It is the first such research project in Poland.

IBE researchers want to ask for opinions of school and kindergarten headmasters, teachers, local government officials, town councillors and families. BECKER is the first study in Poland devoted to expenditure on education conducted on such a large scale. In total, twenty thousand people will participate in the study.

For the BECKER study, conducted under the auspices of the Association of Polish Counties, 4 cities (Poznań, Tarnobrzeg, Siemianowice Śląskie, Świnoujście) and 5 counties (Pruszkowski, Sokólski, Głogowski, Giżycki i Sępoleński) have been selected.

Practical solutions

The main objective of the study is to answer the following questions:

• What is the cost of education at various stages?
• Is the money spent on education optimally used?
• What is the scale of parental expenditure on their children’s education?
• How much time do parents and legal guardians devote to their children's education?

The IBE research project is practical in a number of ways - it will help determine the most important factors influencing educational expenditure decisions and try to provide practical solutions. Local authorities will have an opportunity to find out more about the needs and opinions of the residents concerning the education system. This knowledge may prove useful to school headmasters who oftentimes need to assume the role of efficient managers while allocating money to various needs in their institutions.

Interviews

The study which is scheduled to end in April 2014, has been divided into several stages. The first stage covers interviews with school and kindergarten headmasters and local residents. Interviewers will visit households twice, they will remain in telephone contact with the participants ensuring that families, both parents and children, are interviewed several times. The aim is to collect the data as carefully as possible and to present reliable results.

In mid-September, another cycle of the study at schools will begin. This time, teachers will be invited to interviews, which will provide more information, among other things, on how they plan and organize their work and what costs they bear in connection with their work.

The last stage of the study, which will begin in November, will again include residents of selected counties and cities.