Total payments of households (pupils, students and their families) for educational institutions (such as for tuition fees, exam and registration fees, contribution to Parent-Teacher associations or other school funds, and fees for canteen, boarding and transport) and purchases outside of educational institutions (such as for uniforms, textbooks, teaching materials, or private classes). 'Initial funding' means that government transfers to households, such as scholarships and other financial aid for education, are subtracted from what is spent by households. Note that in some countries for some education levels, the value of this indicator may be 0, since on average households may be receiving as much, or more, in financial aid from the government than what they are spending on education. Calculation: Total payments of households (pupils, students and their families) for educational institutions (such as for tuition fees, exam and registration fees, contribution to Parent-Teacher associations or other school funds, and fees for canteen, boarding and transport), plus purchases outside of educational institutions (such as for uniforms, textbooks, teaching materials, or private classes), minus government education transfers to households (such as scholarships or other education-specific financial aid). When expressed as a share of GDP, this is then divided by the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Limitations: Indicators for household expenditure on education should be interpreted with caution since data comes from household surveys which may not all follow the same definitions and concepts. These types of surveys are also not carried out in all countries with regularity, and for some categories (such as pupils in pre-primary education), the sample sizes may be low. In some cases where data on government transfers to households (scholarships and other financial aid) was not available, they could not be subtracted from amounts paid by households. For more information, consult the UNESCO Institute of Statistics website: http://www.uis.unesco.org/Education/