Expenditure on School Education in Scotland, 2008-09

This document gives the figures for local authority spending on school education in the financial year 2008-09. This therefore most closely relates to the academic year 2008/09.

Main findings

• Gross revenue expenditure on primary education was 1.8 billion, a 2.5 per cent increase from 2007-08 (0.03 per cent decrease in real terms). Expenditure was £4,833 per pupil, an increase of £182 per pupil or 3.91 per cent (1.35 per cent increase in real terms).
• Gross revenue expenditure on secondary education was £2.0 billion, a 3.16 per cent increase from 2007-08 (0.62 per cent increase in real terms). Expenditure was £6,665 per pupil, an increase of £321 per pupil or 5.06 per cent (2.47 per cent increase in real terms).
• Gross revenue expenditure on special education, covering both special and mainstream schools, was £509 million. This was an increase of 4.15 per cent (1.59 per cent increase in real terms). This equates to £807 per 5-15 year old in the population.

The recent trend in gross revenue expenditure by sector (2003-04 to 2008-09) is shown below:

Chart 1: Gross Revenue Expenditure on Schools (£billions), 2003-04 to 2008-09

• Pre-school education expenditure of £318 million and other revenue expenditure of about £229 million resulted in a total local authority education expenditure of £4.9 billion. This was a 2.57 per cent increase from the 2007-08 figure of £4.7 billion (0.05 per cent increase in real terms).
• Capital expenditure on primary and secondary schools was £436 million (£421 million in 2007-08). Information on the split of capital expenditure, funded and not funded from revenue, was not collected in 2008-09. This does not include PPP projects.
• Capital expenditure on special education was £17 million (£19 million in 2007-08). Information on the split of capital expenditure, funded and not funded from revenue, was not collected in 2008-09. This does not include PPP projects.

• £3.1 billion of expenditure was devolved to head teachers in 2008-09, a 3.11 per cent increase on 2007-08.