finance and planning

Monitoring SDG 4: Education finance

Total global education spending in 2020 remained on par with 2018 and 2019, at US$4.9 trillion, but with significant differences in spending in different country income groups. Education has not recovered its lost share in government budgets, which remains lower in 2022 than before COVID-19 in lower income countries. 

Although total aid to education reached a record high of US$18.1 billion in 2020, this increase was largely driven by budget support to countries aimed to help manage the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, rather than by aid directly targeted at education. 

A neglected aspect of education financing is that households in low- and lower-middle-income countries bear 39% of the total cost of education compared to just 16% in high-income countries. 

One in three countries did not reach either of the finance benchmarks set in the Education 2030 Framework for Action