Government Expenditure on Education in the World

¡Hola! Having been suggested by one of my partners in the doctoral programme in Distance Education, I was able to browse through the "Education at a Glance 2017" report, published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which I will address in another post.

For this post, however, I can but agree with her views that investment in education is always an investment in the future, and this is reflected in the social rates mentioned in the report: morbidity, mortality, depression, employment, income.  I would add others like domestic violence, alcoholism, and suicide.

This piqued my curiosity and made me look up the percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) assigned in the world to education, that is, how much money is the world spending in improving not only education but the social and economic conditions of people and nations themselves?

According to the World Bank, so far this century this percentage has risen from a historic low of 3.91% (in the year 2000), with a sustained increase of 4.03% (2004) to 4.67% in 2009. Since then, it went down to 4.48% in 2009, and then rose again to 4.81% in 2015, the last figure available.

Is this enough? Or too little? How does this relate to development? What are the differences between rich and poor countries? Let's review the latest available statistics for different countries to have an idea of how much each government invests in education as part of the GDP, as reported by the World Bank. What follows is just a selection from the complete list:

Australia 5.3% (2015)

Bangladesh 1.5% (2016)

Bolivia 7.3% (2014)

Brazil 6.2% (2015)

Cameroon 3.1% (2017)

Canada (sorry, no data!)

Chile 5.4% (2016)

China (no data)

Congo Republic 4.6% (2015)

Costa Rica 7.4% (2017)

Cuba (no data)

Denmak 7.6% (2014)

Ethiopia 4.7% (2015)

Finland 7.1% (2015)

France 5.5% (2015)

Germany 4.8% (2015)

Haiti 2.4% (2016), (3.2% the previous year)

India 3.8% (2013)

Israel 5.9% (2015)

Italy 4.1% (2015)

Japan 3.5% (2016)

Korea 5.3% (2015)

Mexico 5.2% (2015)

Mozambique 6.5% (2013)

Nepal 5.1% (2017)

Netherlands 5.4% (2015)

Nicaragua 4.3% (2017)

Norway 7.6% (2015)

Pakistan 2.8% (2017)

Poland 4.8% (2015)

Russian Federation 3.8% (2015)

Senegal 6.2% (2017)

Singapore 2.9% (2013)

South Africa 6.1% (2017)

Spain 4.3% (2015)

Sweden 7.6% (2015)

Thailand 4.1% (2013)

Turkey 4.3% (2015)

Uganda 2.6% (2017)

United Kingdom 5.5% (2016)

United States 5.0 (2014) - What an old statistic...

Vietnam 5.7% (2013)

West Bank and Gaza (Palestine) 5.3% (2017)

Zimbabwe 7.5% (2017)

Possible interpretation? Some data is too old, and there are important gaps, as it is clear to see.  In addition, how trustworthy are these figures? Are they official numbers provided by governments or is there independent verification?

How much of this money is actually invested in students, teachers, infrastructure, new programs, technology, or just in bureaucracy? What percentage is dedicated to primary, secondary or tertiary education? (there are separate indicators for this that can be checked at the World Bank's website).

Finally, in some cases fluctuations can be noticed: either as increases or decreases through the years.  Influence of passing fads, neoliberal administrations, domestic crisis or natural events?

Nevertheless, I will venture to say that some poor countries are investing a higher percentage in order to harvest benefits in the years to come, whereas some rich countries have reached a point of balance or even decrease (out of demographic changes?).

Evidently, all of this requires a deeper analysis and the study of individual countries, including their economic, social and political contexts.  Besides, digging into the actual benefits students and teachers receive in terms of scholarships, services and salaries is also worth studying to have a clearer view.

As a conclusion, all money invested in education is also an economic and social investment.  In many cases, the results and outcomes of these expenditures can be seen only decades or one or two generations later. Thank you.


An invitation to reflection: as educational leaders, what is our role influencing the opinion of policymakers in order to increase budget and resources towards education, and their efficient use for the benefit of younger generations?


Sources:

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.XPD.TOTL.GD.ZS?end=2018&start=1997



https://databank.worldbank.org/data/reports.aspx?source=2&series=SE.XPD.TOTL.GD.ZS&country=