According to a report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), expenditure on education varies significantly between countries. The percentage of public expenditure set aside for the education system has been increasing in recent years and the OECD average now stands at 12.9 percent of total public expenditure.

New Zealand is at the very top of the scale - 21.6 percent of the country's total public expenditure is devoted to education. Mexico isn't far behind with 20.5 percent. The story is similar in Brazil where a significant proportion of public finances, 19.2 percent, gets spent on the education system. Elsewhere, that figure is 13.6 percent for the United States and 12.2 percent for the United Kingdom. Italy trails a long distance behind with 8.6 percent.