Fantasy in the Economics of Education

Abstract

In the field of competences measured by PISA surveys, Hungarian students are lagging behind OECD countries. The recent reforms have not yet shown their expected impact. Professionals and laymen usually explain the disappointing results by the fact that education is an underfunded sector. The study depicts what would happen if we doubled the current amount so that the funding of Hungarian education could well exceed the OECD average. It is an eternal question whether all that count is money. Because in our imaginary scenario, in a short period of time modern, clean, new buildings would replace the old, sometimes musty school buildings; we would find the latest multicore computers instead of the 10+ years old IT systems; and the traditional chalk boards would be replaced by interactive boards. The fact that there is a negative relationship between school computer usage and student performance improvements has already been demonstrated in the 2009 PISA study. However, the key to education is the pedagogue. Without training the right professionals, without their appreciation or motivation, the additional expenditures invested in education are meaningless.