The education system is based upon England’s educational system and languages are widely encouraged, especially Hong Kong’s natural dialect, Cantonese, China’s main language (Mandarin) and English. The Program for International Student Assessment ranked Hong Kong's education system as the second best in the world. There is one private and eight public universities in Hong Kong. They are very education conscious, in 2012-13 the approved public spending on education amounted to $79.1 billion, which was 18.9% of the total public expenses.