§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if, further to his answer of 13 May, Official Report, columns 433–34, he will publish in the Official Report details of the basket of goods he used for comparing the purchasing power of expenditure on education, including figures on the standard of living of teachers.
§ Mr. DunnMy answer of 13 May, revised on 12 June, at column 278, made use of purchasing power parities estimated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. For comparing expenditures measured in national currencies, these are preferable to exchange rates in that they allow for differences in national price levels and so permit "real" comparisons. A summary of the theory underlying PPPs, together with some recent data, were given in "Purchasing Power Parities and Real Expenditures in the OECD", a copy of which is in the Library.
As is the case with consumer price indices which are used to adjust for changes in price levels over time, PPPs
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Students aged 16 to 20 in full-time further and higher education as a percentage of the population aged 16 to 20 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 England* Population aged 16 to 20 (000's) 3,681 3,788 3,873 3,922 3,941 3,894 University (000's) 128.8 132.5 133.7 131.3 127.8 126.0 Per cent. university 3.5 3.5 3.5 3.3 3.2 3.2 PSHE (000's) 82.7 85.3 94.8 107.6 116.1 119.4 Total higher education (000's) 211.5 217.8 228.4 239.0 243.8 245.5 Per cent. higher education 5.7 5.7 5.9 6.1 6.2 6.3 NAFE (000's) 228.5 244.1 282.1 315.1 302.2 295.0 Total further and higher education (000's) 440.1 462.0 510.5 554.0 546.0 540.4 Per cent. further and higher education 12.0 12.2 13.2 14.1 13.9 13.9 Wales* Population aged 16 to 20 (000's) 216 223 231 236 239 236 University (000's) 11.1 11.6 11.2 11.2 10.6 10.8 Per cent. university 5.2 5.2 4.8 4.7 4.4 4.6 Scotland* Population aged 16 to 20 (000's) 440 445 457 457 454 453 University (000's) 26.7 27.6 28.0 27.8 27.4 27.0 Per cent. university 6.1 6.2 6.1 6.1 6.0 6.0 * Country of study for student numbers causing some distortion to the percentages where there are noticeable cross-border flows. can be calculated based on different "baskets" of goods and services. The basket used for Japan and the United States of America for the purchasing power parities covered the whole of gross domestic product, consisting of private consumption, Government consumption and capital Formation: details are given in the OECD publication cited. That for other countries covered consumer expenditure only. The individual parities for the various goods and services entering into GDP are aggregated according to overall national consumption patterns, and so do not relate specifically to the standard of living of teachers.