Degreeholders more likely to be without a job
Greeks aged between 25 and 29 years old have greater problems in finding a job if they have a university degree than if they do not, according to the annual report on education for 2007 by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The same is only seen in countries such as Italy, Turkey, New Zealand and Mexico, while in most developed countries university graduates earn more money and find a job more easily than school leavers. Worse, in Greece those who have finished school find it harder to get a job than those who have only finished primary school. Another disappointing conclusion is that Greece lies last among OECD member countries in spending for education. The country devotes 3.5 percent of its gross domestic product to education, when the average for OECD countries is twice as high. The percentage for research and development is negligible. In general, though, the report suggests that education funds are invested in the wrong way worldwide, which is why they do not bring about the expected returns. It adds that a more effective use of funds could improve education levels by as much as 22 percent. «Countries nowadays spend more on education than at any other period of time, but without achieving the maximization of investment,» the report observes. Since 1995 spending on education has increased by 42 percent on average across the OECD countries because of the increase in the number of young people who complete secondary and tertiary education. Nevertheless, as the report notes, this shift lags considerably behind the increase in national revenues. At least the fears that the phenomenon of displacement will be extensive have not materialized, the OECD report concludes. Displacement is the taking of jobs available to secondary education graduates by the increasing number of university graduates.
