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More or Less - It Doesn’t Seem to Matter
There have been a number of comments on our blog about Finland, with one frequent commenter claiming that the OECD attributes Finland’s #1 status on the PISA test to the fact that it spends more than any other country on its education system. However, the 2009 edition of the OECD’s Education at a Glance (click on Indicator B4: What is the total public spending on education?) shows no such thing.
When public spending on primary, secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary education is expressed as a percentage of total public expenditure, the OECD and its partner countries rank as follows: Mexico (15.1%); New Zealand (12.7%); Slovak Republic (12.5%); Iceland (12.4%); Brazil (12.3%); Chile (12.2%); Korea (11.3%); Ireland (11%); Estonia (10.6%); Australia (10.3%); United States (10%); Norway (9.8%); Denmark (9.4%); Israel (9.1%); Slovenia (9%); OECD Average (9%); Luxembourg (8.8%); Switzerland (8.7%); United Kingdom (8.7%); Poland (8.6%); Belgium (8.2%); Sweden (8.1%); Portugal (8%); Finland (7.9%); Netherlands (7.8%); Canada (7.7%); Spain (7.2%); Austria (7.2%); France (7.1%); Japan (7%); Italy (6.9%); Russian Federation (6.8%); Hungary (6.5%); Czech Republic (6.5%); Germany (6.3%)
When public spending on primary, secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary education is expressed as a percentage of GDP, the OECD and its partner countries rank as follows: Iceland (5.2%); Denmark (4.8%); Israel (4.7%); New Zealand (4.7%); Sweden (4.4%); Slovenia (4%); Poland (4%); Belgium (4%); United Kingdom (4%); Finland (3.9%); Poland (3.8%); France (3.8%); Brazil (3.7%); Switzerland (3.7%); Ireland (3.7%); United States (3.7%); Portugal (3.7%); Austria (3.6%); Netherlands (3.6%); OECD Average 3.5%); Estonia (3.5%); Australia (3.4%); Hungary (3.4%); Italy (3.4%); Korea (3.4%); Korea (3.4%); Luxembourg (3.4%); Canada (3.3%); Mexico (3.3%); Czech Republic (2.8%); Germany (2.8%); Spain (2.8%); Japan (2.6%); Chile (2.5%); Slovak Republic (2.4%); Russian Federation (2%); Turkey (1.9%)
Based on the OECD’s statistics, there appears to be no correlation between spending and performance on international tests.