(Yicai) Feb. 28 -- Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Shandong were China's top three provinces for spending on education last year, according to recently released fiscal data compiled by Yicai.

Guangdong lead the pack, spending CNY404.9 billion (USD55.6 billion) on education in 2024, the same as in the previous year.

Jiangsu, Shandong, Zhejiang, and Henan followed, with expenditure on education in excess of CNY200 billion (USD27.4 billion) each. Sichuan, Hunan, Anhui, Jiangxi, and Hubei rounded out the top 10, each spending over CNY100 billion (USD13.7 billion).

Higher spending was seen in regions with deeper coffers, larger student and teacher populations, and a greater emphasis on education. Guangdong, for instance, has long been the wealthiest province by fiscal revenue. With more than 100 million people, it had 11.11 million primary school students in 2023, about 10 percent of the national total, and as of last December, it employed 1.67 million teachers.

Guangdong plans to raise outlays on education by 1 percent this year to CNY409 billion (USD56.1 billion). Jiangsu, Shandong, and Zhejiang expect their schools budgets to reach CNY277 billion (USD38.0 billion), CNY279.1 billion (USD38.3 billion), and CNY244.9 billion (USD33.6 billion), up 0.4 percent, 1.5 percent, and 1 percent, respectively.

According to a report on education funding released by the Ministry of Education last year, Guangdong allocated 21.4 percent of its general public budget to education in 2023, followed by Shandong at 21.2 percent, Fujian at 20.8 percent, Guangxi at 19.3 percent, and Guizhou at 19.1 percent.

China's total spending on education rose 2 percent to CNY4.2076 trillion (USD577.5 billion) last year, according to the Ministry of Finance. Local governments contributed 96 percent, according to an estimate based on 2023’s data.

Sustained fiscal investment is critical as China moves from being just a large country by education to a leader in the field, said Yang Liangsong, an associate professor with the School of Public Finance and Taxation at Southwestern University of Finance and Economics. 

Compared with developed countries, there is still room for improvement in China's outlays on education, Yang said, as the country prioritizes funding for primary and secondary education, and spending on preschool and higher education lags behind.

Yang recommends diversifying the sources of funding and improving spending efficiency to address the widening gap between fiscal revenue and expenditure.

Editor: Tom Litting