Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

NZ tops OECD list for spending on education

Updated at 8:07 am on 12 September 2012

An annual report on education by the OECD says the Government spends more of its budget on education than any of the other 33 countries in the organisation.

The 34-nation organisation's annual report on education published overnight tues night

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development says New Zealand directed 21.2% of its public spending to education in 2009.

That was enough to push it past the previous biggest spender, Mexico, by nearly one percentage point.

The OECD average is 13%.

The report also considers public spending on education as a proportion of gross domestic product.

Again, New Zealand ranks highly, with its figure of 7.2% exceeded only by Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland.

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