National Income, Public Expenditure on Education and Educational Attainment: A Comparative Analysis

A casual observation of the statistics on income and educational attainment among the different income groups suggests a perfect correlation between national income and educational attainment. Does this imply that richer countries spend more on education? What is the relationship between public expenditure on education and educational attainment? The study employs correlation analysis to evaluate how public expenditure on education varies with national income across income groups and over time; and secondly, to ascertain the relationship between public expenditure on education and educational attainment across income groups. The result shows high and positive correlation between national income and public spending on education at the global level over time. Except for high income countries that exhibited similar result, all other income groups produce weak and mixed results. Public expenditure on education shows weak correlation with educational attainment across income groups. This weak relationship was found to grow worse with time. This result points to the fact that aside the issues of efficient utilization of resources, other factors that influence educational attainment seem to be more effective