Academic Writing Task 1 #17 Pie Charts – School Spending

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.

The three pie charts below show the changes in annual spending by a particular UK school in 1981, 1991 and 2001.

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

Write at least 150 words.

 

The charts compare changes in the shares of five different items which comprised the yearly expenses of a British school between 1981 and 2001.

Overall, while the shares of three items experienced rises, there were declines in the remaining two. Moreover, academic staff salaries contributed the largest proportion of expenditure throughout the survey, whereas insurance had the smallest share.

Wages paid to the teaching staff accounted for the most significant proportion of expenditure in 1981 (40%) and went up by a quarter before declining slightly. In comparison, the salaries of non-academic employees were responsible for less than a third of all expenses in 1981, but their share dipped substantially by 13% over the course of these 20 years.

The share of furniture and equipment was initially as high as that of educational resources (15%), but while the former dropped by 2/3 before rising fivefold, the latter experienced a marked rise after which it halved, reaching just below 10%.

The contribution of insurance had risen minimally from 2% to 3% by 1991, before climbing almost threefold in 2001.

(177 words)