Foreign investors’ contributions to an economy trickle down to the classroom.

Good levels of education increase a country’s chances of attracting FDI. But this also works vice versa – it appears that the more FDI that is attracted the greater the impact on the education system.

fDI has looked at data showing various statistics on education in OECD countries since 1995. Transition economies such as Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, which have attracted large inflows of FDI, have also seen a large increase in the absolute number of tertiary students. Poland has seen an 84% rise in total enrolment in tertiary education since 1995 while more established economies like Canada, France and Germany have all seen a 2% to 3% decrease in enrolment.

The general education figures show that more developed economies do still have the highest number of expected years of schooling with Denmark and New Zealand averaging approximately 17 years. Both countries spend heavily on education with New Zealand increasing funds by 30% since 1995. Turkey reveals the highest change in education expenditure with a 60% increase but the number of expected years in education still remains low.

Growth in GDP is correlated with increased education spending in most countries although there are limits. Ireland has a high growth in GDP at 30% but no country could expand its education system at the same rate without running into resource scarcity problems. Ireland has, in fact, clocked up 15% growth in education expenditure.

However, education still seems to be suffering in Czech Republic and Mexico despite a growth in GDP.