Home ›› Economy ›› Budget FY24
When the Awami League government formulated the National Education Policy after coming to power in 2009, educationists had started advocating for spending at least 6 per cent of the GDP on the education sector.
But 14 years down the line, the budgetary allocation to the education sector remains almost unchanged, leaving little scope for investment in quality education in the country.
While presenting the proposed national budget of Tk 7,61,785 crore for FY2023-24 in parliament, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Thursday proposed to allocate Tk 88,162 crore for education in the upcoming fiscal year.
He said, “We want to make skilled human resources as they can face any kinds of challenges including fourth industrial revolution and climate change.”
“We are giving importance on establishing model education institute, teachers training, science and technology based education, inclusion of time befitting subjects regarding fourth industrial revolution and climate change in the curriculum,” he added.
However, the education sector allocation as a share of the GDP and percentage has fallen in the proposed FY24 budget.
The allocation is 11.57 per cent of the total FY24 budget outlay, which was 12 per cent in the outgoing FY2022-23.
The allocation in FY23 was 1.83 per cent of GDP. But in FY24, it will be 1.76 per cent, which is way below the recommendation of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation. It suggests spending 4-6 per cent of the GDP of any country on its education sector.
In his budget speech, the finance minister said that he proposed allocating Tk 34,722 crore for the Primary and Mass Education Ministry in FY24, which was Tk 31,761 crore in FY23.
In the new budget, he proposed a Tk 42,838 crore allocation for the Secondary and Higher Education Division, which was Tk 39,961 crore in the previous budget.
A Tk 10,602 crore allocation has been proposed for the Technical and Madrasah Education Division in FY24. It was Tk 9,727 crore in FY23.
No assurance of MPO, nationalisation of education
Meanwhile, the teachers and employees of non-government educational institutions across the country hoped that the government will bring new schools and colleges under the Monthly Payment Order (MPO) system.
Teachers and employees have also been holding different programmes demanding the nationalisation of all educational institutions.
They hoped that the government will give the necessary allocation in the proposed budget as it is the last budget of the Awami League government’s current term in the election year.
But the government did not keep allocation in the proposed FY24 budget for bringing the new educational institutions under the MPO facility or nationalisation.
More allocation a must
In fact, the percentage of the total education sector allocation does not match the figure 14 years ago. In the revised budget for FY2010-11, the allocation was 14.3 per cent for education.
As the size of the national budget increased every year, the allocation for education rose too but its share in the GDP and the total spending declined over the years.
Experts said the education allocation was 20.1 per cent of Bangladesh’s first national budget in FY1972-73 but this sector’s allocations in recent years’ budgets have always been lower than that of 50 years ago.
In FY1973-74, the allocation was even increased to 20.4 per cent. But since 1974, the education budget has been gradually decreasing.
In the last 10 years, the rise of allocation has been hovering around 10-12 per cent, except once in 2016 when the jump was over 14 per cent, according to budget documents.
According to the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), the country’s average education expenditure as a percentage of GDP from 1979 to 2020 was the fourth lowest among 45 least-developed countries.
Bangladesh has committed in the Dakar Declaration and other global forums to spend 6 per cent of the GDP or allocate at least 20 per cent of the national budget for education. But this is still not the case.
Educationists have said that the country’s inflation continued to rise in the last decade when the education sector witnessed rapid growth with an increased number of students, teachers and institutions. But the allocation did not increase in proportion to the sector’s growth.
They said Bangladesh should invest more in education, especially in quality, if it wanted to change its future and achieve its goals.
