What if we suddenly double the education budget?

Disparities in the country’s educational system have widened over the years and more social conflict lies ahead if the gap is not reduced, renowned economist Prof Rehman Sobhan has said.

The centralisation of examinations in Dhaka fosters inequality and compromises the recruitment process.

The new budget can be described as a “crisis response”

For example, when the Dakar Declaration came in 2000, the country said it would spend 6 percent of GDP on education. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation recommends earmarking four to six percent of the GDP for the sector.

Low allocations for sectors that ensure people’s well-being, such as health, education, agriculture and social safety protection, is unacceptable

The enchantment of statistics should not blind us to the sobering truth.

Today, students are still subjected to, more or less, the same so-called education that we or our seniors experienced.

Bangladesh is lagging behind its neighbours with smaller GDP sizes when it comes to education spending.

Educators and concerned citizens have been urging a major increase in public allocation for the education sector.

The allocation for education in the proposed budget for FY2022-23 leaves a lot to be desired.

The allocation for the education sectors in the proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year of 2022-23 has reduced in terms of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

As the new fiscal year is set to begin, will the state of public schools remain unchanged?

The Tk. 49,000 crore or US$ 6.3 billion allocated for education, when divided by the estimated 40 million students in the country, amounts to Tk. 12,000 per student public spending for a year or about US$ 150 on average for all levels of education.

The government broke with its tradition in education by boosting the allocation 32 percent year-on-year to Tk 49,009 crore for the next fiscal year.

On average, a teacher handles 50 students, when it should be no more than 30. Can it be denied that much more should be spent on primary education and at other stages of education?

Finance Minister Abdul Muhith desperately wants to break out of the six percent growth trap and he seems to believe that this can be done with a larger budget.

It is no wonder that Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid is lamenting the poor budgetary allocation for his ministry, with only Tk. 4000 crore allocated for educational development purposes, while other ministries have been given Tk. 16,000 crore to realise their development objectives.