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Allocation for the education sector has increased in amount but decreased in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) in the proposed budget for the fiscal year 2023-2024, education experts have said.
They said, it is disappointing that the present government has given importance to the overall development of the country while education sector is facing budget scarcity.
“Even though it was an election year, it was not reflected in the budget. Similarly, the education sector has always been neglected,” Eminent educationist and adviser to a caretaker government Rasheda K Chowdhury told The Daily Messenger while expressing her disappointment over the reduction in the allocation of the education sector in the budget.
She added: “The allocation has increased in the amount of money but if you look at it, it can be seen that a large part of what has been allocated will go to the management of educational institutions.”
According to Rasheda, since the size of the country’s education sector is large, it is natural that its operating expenses will increase. But at the same time, focus on improving the quality of education should be there too. She expects more investment to improve teachers, curriculum, reading skills etc.
According to sources, after Awami League led government took charge in 2009, the initiative to formulate the national education policy was taken. Since the education policy was formulated in 2010, the educationists have been demanding to allocate at least six percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) to the education sector to implement the goals of the education policy.
Professor of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) M Tamim said that there has been great progress in the education sector from the quantitative aspect. But now all our focus should be on quality. He is in favor of investing 5-6 percent of GDP in the education sector to improve the skills of students.
Despite the increase in the size of the budget every year, the allocation for the education sector has decreased proportionally over the last few years. The percentage allocated to the education sector is now less than the percentage of the total budget in nine years ago. At that time, 12.6 percent of the total budget was allocated to the education sector.
On Thursday (1 June), Finance Minister A.H.M Mustafa Kamal has proposed allocation of Tk 88,162 crore to the education sector in the new budget which was Tk 81,449 crore in the last financial year and Tk 6,713 crore taka more than last financial year.
According to advice of UNESCO, 6 percent of the total GDP of a country is supposed to be spent on the education sector, but in the next fiscal year, 11.57 percent of the total budget for primary, secondary, higher education, madrasa and technical education has been allocated for the education sector. In the financial year 2022-23 it was 12.01 percent or Tk 81,449 crore.
Educationists said that, the number of students, teachers and educational institutions in Bangladesh has increased significantly over the last decade. Inflation also increased during this period. Compared to that, the budget allocation in the education sector has not increased. They said that, the government should focus on improving the quality of education especially in the education sector to implement its announced new target of “Smart Bangladesh”.
TDM/FMT
