Summary:
Ministry of Education, National Bureau of Statistics and Ministry of Finance recently released the statistical expenditure report of national education budget in 2015.

• Overall public funding growth of 14.6% (9.4% in real terms), which is faster than GDP growth
The report shows that total education spending in 2015 reached 3.61 trillion RMB (then £376 Bn), up 10.1 per cent over the previous year. This includes 2.92 Tn RMB in public spending, accounting for 4.3 per cent of GDP. 2.59 Tn RMB of this came from government funding, an increase of 14.6 per cent over 2014 and accounting for 14.7 per cent of public fiscal expenditure.

• Spending increased fastest at the higher vocational and senior high school levels, while spending on universities grew by less than the overall average
According to the report, public budgetary expenditure per student at the high school and higher vocational levels respectively increased by 19.9 per cent and 20.1 per cent respectively. In contrast, spending on university students increased much more slowly at 12.7 per cent.

• Increased spending at lower levels of government and in less-developed regions
Expenditure at the provincial and lower levels grew significantly faster than central government spending. Meanwhile, there was a substantial increase in spending in rural Western provinces, particularly at the university level. Total spending on university-level education grew by 55% in Ningxia, 51% in Tibet and 47% in Qinghai, compared with much smaller increases in more developed areas.

Sources:
1. Full report (Chinese): http://www.moe.gov.cn/srcsite/A05/s3040/201611/t20161110_288422.html