Nursery World - UK parents spend more on childcare than in other OECD countries

Early education spending in the UK relies more heavily on private funding than in most other countries, according to a major survey from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Less than half of the expenditure on pre-primary education came from public sources in 2015 (47 per cent), the second lowest proportion across OECD countries, which is ‘considerably less’ than the OECD average of 82 per cent, the report said.

The annual survey, Education at a glance 2017, which monitors spending on education in 35 countries, also points out that spending on early education relative to gross domestic product (GDP) is lower than the OECD average – equivalent to 0.5 per cent of GDP, compared to 0.8 per cent.

However, the report points out that this is partly due to the shorter time spent in this phase of education by young children in the UK.

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