BEIJING, June 15 (Xinhua) -- China spent about 5.01 trillion yuan (about 706.6 billion U.S. dollars) on education nationwide in 2019, up 8.74 percent from the previous year, the Ministry of Education said Monday.

The government's budgetary spending on education amounted to over 4 trillion yuan in 2019, a year-on-year increase of 8.25 percent, according to a report issued by the ministry.

The report shows that over 2.2 trillion yuan of spending went to compulsory education and over 1.3 trillion yuan to higher education in 2019, up 9.12 percent and 11.99 percent respectively from the previous year.