Turkey spent nearly $42B on education in 2016

By Gokhan Ergocun

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's total expenditure on education rose 18.9 percent to $41.95 billion in 2016, compared to the previous year, Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said Tuesday.

The expenditure on education as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) increased to 6.2 percent in 2016 from 5.8 percent in 2015, according to the data.

In 2016, 74.2 percent of expenditure was public while households accounted for the remaining 18.8 percent.

Tertiary education accounted for 29.8 percent ($8.17 billion) of the public sector's total education expenditure, while 28.1 percent ($7.69 billion) was for primary education.

Private institutions, on the other hand, allocated 43.3 percent ($3.02 billion) of total spendings for tertiary education, and 32.6 percent ($2.28 billion) for upper secondary education.

Education expenditures in 2016 increased at most in upper secondary education with 31.6 percent, followed by tertiary education at 20.3 percent.

The education expenditure per student in the country reached $1,942, rising 16.7 percent from the previous year's $1,664. The highest level of expenditure per student in 2016 was for tertiary education with $3,703.

Around 190 million schoolbooks were delivered free of charge in Sept. 2017 alone in Turkey, where children receive 12 years of elementary education for free.