Turkey: Education expenditures soar 12.2 pct in 2015

ANKARA

Turkey's education expenditures in 2015 reached 135.2 billion Turkish liras (around $38.5 billion) -- a 12.2 rise over the previous year -- a Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) report said Friday.

Education expenditures’ share of the country's gross domestic production (GDP) fell slightly to 5.8 percent last year from 5.9 percent in 2014, TurkStat said.

According to Friday's report, pre-primary school education spending climbed the most, 31 percent in 2015 over the previous year, followed by secondary education with a 24.6 percent rise.

The government financed 74.3 percent of total education expenditures in the country, while the share of education expenditure by households was 18.7 percent last year, according to TurkStat.

"47.2 percent of education expenditures – 10.3 billion liras ($2.93 billion) – spent by private institutions was for upper secondary education, and 40.0 percent for tertiary education – 8.7 billion liras ($2.5 billion)," said the report.

Education expenditures per student rose to 6,500 liras ($1,880) in 2015 from 5,780 liras ($1,650) in 2014.

TurkStat said that post-secondary/tertiary education expenditures per student were higher than any other level, with 12,300 liras last year.