Creativity Development and Educational Expenditures: An Exploratory Study

The creative idea’s source lies in the Ancient Greece where Aristotle considered creativity as something that resulted “when one is bereft of his senses.” Creativity entails generating and recognizing ideas; solving problems; viewing things from different perspectives and in different ways; changing or transforming an existing domain into a new one, in an innovative and unique way; and associating different fields of knowledge. Creativity development is an important consideration for many disciplines such as education, technology, engineering, cognitive science, business studies, and economics. The main goal of creativity is developing through exploration, decision-making, and expression. In an era defined by technological innovations and marked by financial crisis, developing the creative and innovative potential of students reflects the need of new educational methods. This necessity was recently reported to the European Commission’s project entitled “Modernization on Education.” The current research explores the different sources of funding (governmental or households), reports the spending per country on education, and, finally, emphasizes the importance OECD countries assign to education. This research aims at depicting the linkage between state budget spending on education and creativity development. It is purported that increases in expenditures on education may help foster economic growth, enhance productivity, contribute to people’s personal and social development, and help reduce social inequalities. Educational expenditures include spending on universities, schools, and other private and public institutions.