Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent comparative assessment he has made of the level of funding for education in (a) England and (b) EU member states.

The Department uses internationally comparable data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to assess how our funding compares internationally.

This data shows that the UK is among the higher spenders on education at primary and secondary level. The UK government spends 3.8% of GDP on primary and secondary educational institutions, compared to an EU22 average of 3.0%. Within the EU, only Belgium (4.1%) and Finland (4.0%) spend a higher proportion of GDP on primary and secondary educational institutions than the UK. The OECD data also shows that the UK is the top spender in the G7 on schools and colleges delivering primary and secondary education, as a percentage of GDP.

Total expenditure on primary and secondary educational institutions as a percentage of GDP, from government sources (2015) in EU countries in the OECD analysis can be found in the table below:

The data on expenditure on educational institutions as a percentage of GDP by source of funds is available in Table C2.2 of the OECD’s Education at a Glance 2018 publication at the following link: https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-at-a-glance-2018/total-expenditure-on-educational-institutions-as-a-percentage-of-gdp-by-source-of-funds-2015_eag-2018-table140-en.