A casual observation of the statistics on income and educational
attainment among the different income groups suggests a perfect correlation
between national income and educational attainment. Does this imply that richer
countries spend more on education? What is the relationship between public
expenditure on education and educational attainment? The study employs
correlation analysis to evaluate how public expenditure on education varies with
national income across income groups and over time; and secondly, to ascertain
the relationship between public expenditure on education and educational
attainment across income groups. The result shows high and positive correlation
between national income and public spending on education at the global level over
time. Except for high income countries that exhibited similar result, all other
income groups produce weak and mixed results. Public expenditure on education
shows weak correlation with educational attainment across income groups. This
weak relationship was found to grow worse with time. This result points to the
fact that aside the issues of efficient utilization of resources, other factors that
influence educational attainment seem to be more effective.