ABSTRACT
Teacher supply might be more subject to market forces, student participation rates could be more influenced by economic activity levels, but many components in the relationship would continue unaltered. The dominant question concerns the willingness and the ability of the economy to support an education service, and relatedly the effects on the intentions and functions of the service of economic factors. In brief, the education service expanded more rapidly than the public economy as a whole, which itself took a rising proportion of GDP. While education's share of public expenditure should decrease only marginally from 12.22% to 12.15%, this is within a total where restriction is a main objective of government economic policy. The effects of these changing circumstances are less marked in relation to the actual conditions under which schools and colleges function, as compared to the changes in attitudes and practices that accompanied and followed the transition.
