Per Student Financing in ECA School Systems
By the turn of the century, the decreasing efficiency and deteriorating quality of education systems in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ECA) had reached a critical point. Many countries were facing serious resource allocation problems in general education. While the region had seen sweeping political, economic and population changes, countries continued to manage schools with traditional and centralized institutions. Budgets were allocated on the basis of past history, even as school age populations declined and moved. Consequently, the region had an excessive number of schools, with very low student and teacher ratios. For example, 47 percent of all schools in Armenia had less than 300 students by 2003, and Lithuania averaged only 12 students per teacher from 2000-2005.