Indicator 38: Staff Employed in Education

Staffing a country's education system /1

Staff are a crucial component of a country's education system, and staff employed in education as a percentage of the total labor force is one measure of a country's commitment to educating its populace. Indicator 38 explores this issue and focuses on the composition of education system staff, specifically, the share of teaching and nonteaching staff. The relative shares of both vary widely across countries. This variation arises both from fundamental differences in the nature of schools, particularly the services provided to students, and from differences in who are counted as teachers.

The composition of staff employed in education will vary widely across countries because not all countries provide the same types of services to their students through the education system. At the elementary and secondary levels, schools and school districts in the United States typically provide transportation to and from schools for at least some students, maintain a school cafeteria and offer subsidized meals, have a variety of school-based noneducation services such as health care and counseling, and offer a wide range of extracurricular activities. In other countries, although these services and activities may be available to students, they are not necessarily provided by the education system. For example, in many OECD countries,/2 schools do not have cafeterias or other types of meal services. Subsidized transportation may be available to students, but through public transportation authorities. Similarly, in many countries, such as Australia, most elementary and secondary schools do not employ health professionals. Although they have a close working relationship with the schools, employers of health professionals may be either private- or public-sector organizations or agencies. In Germany, students receive vocational counseling, but it is provided by the Federal Labor Ministry. In addition, elementary schools in other OECD countries are less likely to employ specialized personnel such as librarians and media specialists than U.S. elementary schools. Thus, the type and extent of such services offered by the education system have a major influence on differences in the composition of primary and secondary education staff between countries.

Similar differences in the range of services available to students exist at the postsecondary level as well. Many colleges and universities in the United States operate as centralized campuses and exist as communities in and of themselves. They offer housing, meals, and comprehensive counseling and health services and maintain extensive physical facilities. In 1989, instruction and research faculty and assistants comprised approximately 40 percent of all employees of U.S. institutions of higher education./3

Because universities and colleges in other countries may be less likely to offer the wide range of services provided by many U.S. colleges and universities, the ratio of teaching to nonteaching staff will often be larger in other countries than in the United States. In Spain, for instance, because most students live at home while attending university, student dormitories are nowhere near as common as they are in the United States. In Germany as well, students tend to live off campus. A federally funded organization, the Studentenwerk, oversees student housing, meal services, and financial aid./4 However, none of these services are as extensive as in the United States. The Studentenwerk has established subsidized housing for approximately 10 percent of the university population; and, since coursework is free at German universities, student financial aid provided through the Studentenwerk in the form of interest-free loansis needed only to assist with living expenses. Differences in staff composition reflect differences in the degree of noneducational services provided by universities.

Much of the variation in the composition of education system staff also reflects differences in how personnel are classified across countries. What factors underlie these differences in classification? One major difference across countries is in the definition of teaching personnel. The United States includes only classroom teachers in this category. In contrast, many other countries, including Australia, Austria, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, also include personnel involved in the administration of schools. In the case of assistant principals or other administrative personnel who have some teaching responsibilities, this practice yields results somewhat comparable to the U.S. data. The accuracy of comparisons with the United States is compromised when these countries include administrative staff with no teaching responsibilities. It is unclear exactly which nonteaching administrative personnel are classified as teaching staff in those countries that have adopted this approach; but many countries include principals and headmasters, and some may even include counselors, psychologists, and persons who are certified as teachers but work in central offices.

In comparing the relative sizes of teaching and nonteaching staff, there is a natural tendency to draw conclusions about the priority or emphasis of education systems. However, these conclusions must be tempered with the consideration that: (1) services provided by education systems in some countries may be provided by other agencies or authorities in other countries; and (2) education systems classify their personnel differently.

Footnotes

1/ Except where noted, this sidebar is based on S.M. Barro, "Preliminary findings from the Expenditures Comparability Study" (Washington, D.C.: SMB Economic Research, Inc., 1993).

2/ See the Glossary for a list of the member nations of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

3/ U.S. Department of Education, , Digest of Education Statistics, 1993 (Washington, D.C.: 1993), 224.

4/ G. Porter, World Education Series: Federal Republic of Germany, American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, "Federal Republic of Germany," World Education Series (Washington, D.C.: 1986), 60-61.

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