in sub-Saharam Africa, about half of all low-income countries spend less than 4 percent of their national income on education. in south Asia,Bangladesh devotes only 2.6 percent of its national income to education and Pakistan 2.7 percent India invests a smaller proportion of GDP (around 3.3 percent) than the medium for sub-Saharan Africa, even though average incomes are around one third higher. even more worrying is that the share of national income devoted ti education is stagnating or decreasing in key countries, including Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, which account for over 15 million out-of-school children.