Saudi Arabia has spent around $322 billion in the last decade on education, Al Eqtisadiya newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The expenditures were on university education, technical and vocational training, and the construction of university cities.

Part of the spending went to rental schools which represented 48 percent of a total of 20,600 public schools in 2011, and the figure was down to 22 percent last year with the construction of 750 new schools owned by the government, according to the Saudi Education Ministry.

In the 2013 budget, a whole of 54 billion will be allocated to the education sector.

The spending on education led to a massive reduction in illiteracy from 60 percent in 2007 to four percent in 2011 in Saudi Arabia, according to Okaz newspaper on Tuesday.