3.3 The Level of Educational Expenditures in Our Country

Educational expenditures generally refer to the educational operating expenses together with the investment in capital construction for education. The level of educational expenditures is used mainly to measure the degree of effort made by a given country in developing its education and whether these expenditures are commensurate to the financial ability of that country and to the scale and rate of the development of its education. Over a period of time, the level of our educational expenditures has caused concern among various quarters and given rise to extensive studies and debates. But because differing data have been used in the various studies, the indicators are used with differing specifications. Perceptions and conclusions are yet to converge. Hence it is difficult to make an accurate estimation of the relative size of our educational expenditures in the national economy. Therefore, we must study and learn anew the actual level of our educational expenditures based on discussing the feasible indicators for comparison, defining the concept and scope of educational expenditures, and carefully analyzing the actual financial resources of our country.