ABSTRACT
The educational system, like any economic activity, uses a certain proportion of society's scarce resources. These resources could be used elsewhere; expenditure on school buildings entails forgoing house and office building, expenditure on teachers' salaries represents
employment opportunities forgone in some other branch of the economy. It is not intended here to calculate the total economic cost of education however; that is a very complex issue. What is intended is simply to give a general view of the size and place of educational activity in relation to the economy as a whole.
