Turkey's education spending goes up in 2018

ANKARA-Anadolu Agency

Turkey's education expenditures increased by nearly 22 percent year-on-year in 2018, the country's statistical authority announced on Dec. 18.

The country spent 214.6 billion Turkish liras ($44.5 billion) last year, up from 176.5 billion Turkish liras ($48.3 billion) in 2017, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) said.

The figure rose most for pre-primary education by 27.3 percent and upper secondary education with 24.3 percent during the same period.

The share of education spending on Turkey's GDP stood at 5.8 percent in 2018, compared to 5.7 percent a year earlier.

Public sources financed 72.9 percent of the education expenditure in Turkey last year. The largest amount was spent on tertiary education by public institutions, 50.1 billion Turkish liras ($10.6 billion).

The share of education expenditure by households was 20.0 percent in 2018.

Education spending per student stood at 9,790 liras ($2,030) last year, while the amount was 16,248 Turkish liras ($3,371) for tertiary education.