Over the next 10 years the number of Irish children aged five to 14 will decline by 21 per cent, more than any other country in the advanced world except Poland, according to the OECD.
The OECD's annual compilation of statistics, Education at a Glance, says that Ireland, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Spain have a present and future decline in the numbers of children between five and 14.
However, the INTO general secretary, Senator Joe O'Toole, warned that the OECD was probably using 1995 Department of Education birth rate projections for 1996-1999 which the Department itself now agreed were out of date. These showed an annual increase in the birth rate which was at least 5,000 lower than the actual figures. The OECD report shows that Irish primary education continues to be the poor relation by international standards. Annual spending per student in 1995 was the equivalent of $2,144, the lowest in the EU, with only Korea, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Mexico lower in the OECD.
The statistics show that Ireland's per capita spending on primary education is closer to non-OECD developing countries like Chile, Malaysia and Argentina than high-spending EU members like Denmark, Austria, Sweden, Italy, Finland and France.
Spending on secondary education is relatively not much better, with Ireland spending the equivalent of $3,395 per student, ahead only of the Czech Republic, Korea, Greece, Mexico and Hungary.
However, between 1990 and 1995 Ireland had the second-fastest increase in spending - albeit from a low base - of any OECD country; only Mexico's rate of increase was greater.
At the other end of the educational scale, Irish university-educated women earn more compared to those who complete second-level schooling than in any other OECD country apart from the UK.
Irish teachers remain highly paid by international standards. An Irish "lower secondary" teacher with 15 years' experience earned in 1996 the equivalent of $37,154 for working 735 hours a year. This compared to a British teacher who earned $29,948 for 740 hours; a Dutch teacher who earned $30,898 for 910 hours; and a Korean teacher who earned $42,597 for 456 hours. A Philippine teacher earned $7,318 for working 1,176 hours.
However, the pupil-teacher ratio in Ireland remains one of the highest in the developed world: 22.6 at primary (third-highest) and 15.8 at second level (eighth-highest).
Mr O'Toole said the OECD's figures provided "independent evidence, if it were needed, which fully supports the demands of the INTO for more funding and staffing of Irish primary schools."
They showed that Ireland, "with the most rapidly expanding economy in the EU, still invests less per pupil in primary schools than any of our European partners." In a statement, the Minister for Education and Science, Mr Martin, noted that the figures showed that the Irish proportion of public expenditure on education as a whole was above the OECD average, and at 13.5 per cent was the highest in the EU.
He said the Irish proportion of public expenditure accounted for by primary and secondary education was also above the OECD average and was the second-highest, after Spain, in the EU.