# **_Recent Spending Increases Have Gone to Providing More Spending per Student in Middle-Income Countries_**

In middle-income countries where access to primary and secondary education started out much higher, increases in public education spending have tended to be used to boost the level of spending per student. **–** Average enrollment rates in 1998 2001 in upper-middle-income countries were 92 percent for primary school and 62 percent for secondary school. This has meant that in upper-middle-income countries more than half of all the public spending increases in primary school and three-quarters of the public spending increases in secondary school was devoted to increasing the amount of funding spent on each student (Table 4). These increases in spending per student were often implemented as part of reform attempts by governments to improve the quality of education. As countries make the transition between spending for expansion and spending for quality, it is important to focus on the efficiency of public spending to ensure that increases in spending are used effectively to improve education outcomes.

**<u>Table 4: Public Education Spending Changes by Level and Income Groups, 1998–2017</u>**

||**Low income**|**Lower-middle**<br>**income**|**Upper-middle**<br>**income**|**High income**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Primary (total % change)**|**148**|**89**|**83**|**62**|
|% devoted to access|66|30|38|26|
|% devoted to per student spending|34|70|62|74|
|**Secondary (total % change)**|**241**|**121**|**162**|**43**|
|% devoted to access|80|49|25|43|
|% devoted to per student spending|20|51|75|57|
|**Tertiary (total % change)**|**167**|**147**|**118**|**136**|
|% devoted to access|69|64|73|55|
|% devoted to per student spending|31|36|27|45|

_Source:_ World Bank calculations based on UIS and IMF data.

_Note:_ Only countries for which there are data that span across at least four out of the five periods (1998 **–** 2001, 2002 **–** 05, 2006 **–** 09, 2010 **–** 13, and 2014 **–** 17) between 1998 and 2017 are included in the figure. The percentage devoted to access and percentage devoted to per student spending sum to 100 percent of the total percent change over five-year episodes for each level of education.

# _2.5 Summary_

While the overall patterns and trends in public education spending vary widely across income groups and regions, we can draw some general conclusions from our analysis in this section.

- Global averages:

- Average government education spending doubled in real terms between 1998 and 2017, but spending as a share of GDP increased only slightly.

- The composition of public education spending remained relatively stable over the same period.

- Economic growth has been the main source of financing increases in government education spending.

- Differences among regions:

- Real government education spending has increased more than threefold in East Asia and the Pacific since 1999.

- Government education spending as a share of GDP has declined in the Middle East and North Africa region.

- Both Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean have seen rapid increases in terms of share of GDP going to government education spending.

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