HOW UNEQUAL IS EDUCATION SPENDING?
We can start to understand why education is so unequal and why it is getting worse by considering how much is spent on education per child.
The levels of inequality between the United States and African countries are hard to comprehend in a graph because the education expenditure is so low in Africa.
If we make the education budget per child in the United States the height of the Statue of Liberty in New York, from her toes to the tip of her torch – how high will African countries be?
Most countries in sub-Saharan Africa would be below the top of the Statue of Liberty’s toe.
Burundi would be just 7cm off the ground. That is how unequal education spending is. [1]
If we consider government education budgets between Africa and Europe, we have to consider a small European country with a number of larger African countries to even compare.
Luxembourg is one of Europe’s smallest countries, but due to unequal education spending the education budget of Luxembourg is larger than the combined education budgets of eleven larger low-income African countries put together. [2]
Yet Luxembourg has 100,000 school-aged children, and the eleven African countries have 50 million school aged children, five hundred times more. [3]
Norway has under a million school aged children, but due to unequal education spending the Norwegian education budget is twice as large as the combined education budget of 30 African countries, with 236 million school aged children between them. [4]
More is now spent on eight days of education for a school child in the EU’s smallest country Malta than the entire school life of a child in Malawi [5]
The inequality in education budgets really is incredible.
But hasn’t education spending always been unequal?
Yes. In 1976, the time of the Soweto uprising around half a century ago, the legacy of colonialism and slavery had left a wide gap between budgets in Africa and rich countries.
But whilst Education per child budgets in the US, Canada and European countries have increased sharply since, in sub-Saharan African countries they have not. The contrast between all the EU and African countries with enough annual data is very clear in the graph. [6]
In proportional terms inequality has more than quadrupled. European education budgets per child have increased from 19 times African budgets in 1976 to 82 times the African budgets now. [7]
What about the rest of the world?
The other lower income regions from the 1970s have started to close their gap to richer regions but not in Africa.
Asian and Latin American education budgets per child were slightly below Africa budgets in 1976 and are now over 6 times higher. [8]
So if you remove inflation by using constant USD, how much has the education budget increased in Africa?
Actually, despite the huge increases in other regions, the average African annual education expenditure per child has fallen from $345 in 1976 to $166 today. [9]
Far from increasing, the amount spent on an African child’s education has halved in the last 50 years.
Our world has inherited the education inequality of previous generations and rather than end it, we have dramatically increased it.
World wealth has doubled and doubled again in the last fifty years [10]. How rich do we have to be before every child, wherever they are born, has the chance to go to school?
It would now cost just 0.2% of global wealth [11] to achieve universal education and ensure every child has a trained teacher. It would be transformative in finally ending extreme global inequality and the lives of young Africans.
But if governments in Africa will not prioritise education, what can the rest of the world do?
Aren’t African Governments committed to education?
Apart from a few exceptions, African governments actually spend a higher percentage of their budget on education than their European and North American counterparts. [12]
Even though eight days of education for an average school child in Malta is more than the entire school life of an average child in Malawi [5], the government of Malawi actually spends a higher percentage of its government budget on education than Malta. [13]
All the African countries in the earlier graph actually spend a higher percentage of their government’s budget on education than the US.
They may only be a few centimetres off the ground compared to the Statue of Liberty but each of the African governments place a higher priority on education than the US and indeed than the UK and every country in the European Union.
Greater prioritisation of education is needed in some African countries such as Nigeria, South Sudan and Angola, and the education ministry budget negotiations with the finance ministry will always be critical for African students.
However the huge inequality in education in our world is caused by the colossal difference in government budgets, not by Africa’s commitment to education.
Even if the government of Burundi gave 100 percent of their annual expenditure to the education ministry alone, their education budget per child would still be more than 200 times smaller than Switzerland’s. [14]
Tackling unequal education spending and Government budget inequality has to be the starting point for those who want a more equal world.
Sources
1. UNESCO Indicator Government Expenditure on Education in Constant USD – (Retrieved14Jul23) Get data here {In the left hand side themes menu select EDUCATION -> Other policy relevant indicators -> Government Expenditure on Education amount -> Government Expenditure on Education in Constant USD} & WORLD BANK ‘Indicator: Population ages 0-14), Get date here {Divide the education expenditure in each year by an estimated 0-17 population (0-14 population from three years before plus 20% of current 0-14 population) for an estimate of budget per child} & National Park Service ‘Statue of Liberty – Statue Statistics’ Top of base to torch – Read more here
2. UNESCO, ‘Government Expenditure on Education Constant’ – Get data here -gives $3.12 billion for Luxembourg (latest year) and Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Malawi, Niger, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Togo combined expenditure of $2.3 billion (latest year) (Data accesses June 2024)
3. UN Population Division, ‘File POP/02-1: Total population (both sexes combined) by five-year age group, region, subregion and country, annually for 1950-2100 (thousands)’, Get Data here {adding 5-9,10-14,15-19 together for school age population estimate} gives school aged population of Luxembourg as 104,095 and for Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Malawi, Niger, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Togo combined as 50,690,169
4. UNESCO, ‘Government Expenditure on Education Constant’ – Get data here & UN Population Division ‘File POP/02-1: Total population (both sexes combined) by five-year age group, region, subregion and country, annually for 1950-2100 (thousands)’, Get Data here {adding 5-9,10-14,15-19 together for school age population estimate} gives Norway a $39.5 billion education budget for 945,000 school aged children and Tanzania, Sao Tome and Principe, The Gambia, Liberia, Cabo Verde, Djibouti, Burundi, Lesotho, Mauritania, Togo, Chad, Malawi, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Madagascar, Benin, Congo, Rep., Niger, Rwanda, Mauritius, Zimbabwe, Congo, Dem. Rep., Uganda, Mozambique, Mali, Burkina Faso, Zambia, Senegal, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire a combined $18.3 billion education budget for 236.3 million school aged children
5. UNESCO, ‘Government Expenditure on Education Constant’ – Get data here & UN Population Division ‘File POP/02-1: Total population (both sexes combined) by five-year age group, region, subregion and country, annually for 1950-2100 (thousands)’, Get Data here {adding 5-9,10-14,15-19 together for school age population estimate} gives public education expenditure in Malta as $857 million (latest year) against a school aged population of 70,510 for an annual spend of $12,519 which on a 180 day school year gives $67.55 per day and $540 for eight days. Public education expenditure in Malawi is $361 million (latest year) against a school age population of 8.3 million giving an annual average expenditure of $43.12 or twelve years of school expenditure as $517.
6. Only some countries had enough UNESCO data for education expenditure in the 1970s through to the 2020s –10 sub-Saharan African countries and 11 European countries were included in the graph but the trends in those countries with partial data points are very similar and the African countries with no data are likely to be poorer where budgets are likely to be even lower.
7. & 8. UNESCO, ‘Government Expenditure on Education Constant’ – Get data here – & UN Population Division ‘File POP/02-1: Total population (both sexes combined) by five-year age group, region, subregion and country, annually for 1950-2100 (thousands)’, Get Data here {adding 5-9,10-14,15-19 together for school age population estimate} gives $6,762 for Europe in 1976 (or latest year 1972-5) and $13,709 in 2022 (or latest year 2018-2021) and for Africa in 1976 (or latest year 1972-5) $345 for and $166 in 2022 (or latest year 2018-2021). This gives multiples of 18.52 for 1976 and 82.58 for 2022. It also gives $330 for Asia and Latin America in 1976 (or latest year 1972-5) and $1,089 for Asia and Latin America in 2022 so lower than Africa in 1976 and a multiple of 6.56 higher today Please note these regional calculations are averages from all the UNESCO countries with comparable data on education expenditure from the early 1970s to today (10 African, 16 European, 22 are Asian or Latin American).
9. UNESCO, ‘Government Expenditure on Education Constant’ – Get data here – & UN Population Division ‘File POP/02-1: Total population (both sexes combined) by five-year age group, region, subregion and country, annually for 1950-2100 (thousands)’, Get Data here {adding 5-9,10-14,15-19 together for school age population estimate} gives for Africa $345 in 1976 (or latest year 1972-5) and $166 in 2022 (or latest year 2018-2021). Calculations done for the 10 sub-Saharan African countries with sufficient data over the time period.
10. World Bank, ‘GDP in Constant USD 2015, Indicator NY.GDP.MKTP.KD’ – Get data here – gives World GDP as $23.05 trillion in 1976, doubling to $46.34 trillion by 1999 and doubling again to $93.35 trillion in 2022
11. World Bank, ‘GDP in Current USD, Indicator NY.GDP.MKTP.CD’ – Get data here – gives world wealth of $106.17 trillion in 2023, and 0.2% gives over $200 billion a year & UNESCO ‘Global Monitoring Report 2020’ – Read More here – estimated the financing gap for achieving SDG 4 on universal education as $148 billion for low and lower middle income countries.& UNESCO and International Task Force on Teachers for Education, 2024, ‘Global report on teachers: addressing teacher shortages and transforming the profession’ – Read more here – estimates the total cost of closing the professional teacher gap is as $120 billion with teachers an estimated as 75% of the costs of an education system
12. UNESCO UIS, ‘Expenditure on education as a percentage of total government expenditure (%)’, Get data here
13. UNESCO UIS, ‘Expenditure on education as a percentage of total government expenditure (%)’, Get data here – gives Malta 12.66% and Madagascar 14.07%
14. UNESCO, ‘Government Expenditure on Education Constant’ – Get data here & UN Population Division, ‘File POP/02-1: Total population (both sexes combined) by five-year age group, region, subregion and country, annually for 1950-2100 (thousands)’ – Get data here – {adding 5-9,10-14,15-19 together for school age population estimate} gives Burundi $28 per child and Switzerland $30,065 per child for 2018 (latest year) & UNESCO UIS, ‘Expenditure on education as a percentage of total government expenditure (%)’, Get data here – shows Burundi spends 20.64% of its government budget on education – if it spent 100% per child education expenditure would rise to $137.55 per child still some 218 times smaller than Switzerland
