According to the OECD survey, Japan is at bottom of the list for public spending on education in 2009. The list included 31 comparable Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member states. The survey even stated that Japan’s proportion of public spending on educational institutions to the nation’s gross domestic product stood at 3.6%, against the OECD average of 5.4%.
Denmark claimed the top spot with 7.5 percent, next was Iceland with 7.3 percent and Sweden followed suit with 6.6 percent. For Japan, the private funding, which includes tuition fees accounted for 31.9% of overall spending on education. This number is twice as high as the OECD average of 16% and puts Japan in third spot, right after Chile and South Korea.
For the year 2010, the average number of students in each class was 28 in Japanese elementary schools, the OECD average was 21.2. Japan versus OECD numbers for junior high schools is pitted at 32.9 against 23.4. The classroom sizes in Japan are the second-largest among the member countries. The Democratic Party of Japan’s government removed tuition fees at public high schools levels from the fiscal 2010. They also reduced the size of classes for first- and second-graders at public elementary schools to 35 from fiscal 2011. Hwever these measures are not yet reflected in the survey.
[Via Jiji]