M M Jasim :
The educationists on Saturday expressed their unhappiness over the poor allocation in the proposed national budget for the education sector.
They said that it would be very difficult to ensure quality education with this hard up allocation for the fiscal year 2017-18.
Overall allocation for the education sector in the proposed budget has decreased by 1.89 per cent while development budget fall by 2.33 percent, than the previous year’s budget.
The percentage of allocation for the education sector, in the proposed budget, came down to 12.59 per cent of the total allocation from 14.40 per cent in the last financial year.
Similarly, the percentage of allocation of development budget in the proposed budget also comes down to 10.27 per cent than the last year’s 12.6 per cent.
Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith in his budget speech for fiscal 2017-18 on Thursday proposed an allocation of Tk 50,432 crore for Primary and Mass Education Ministry, Secondary and Higher Education Division and Technical and Madrassah Education Division.
Professor Emeritus Serajul Islam Choudhury said, “Our future would be bleak if we do not increase our investment in education.” It is a matter of regret that the government investment in the education sector is poor, and the allocation has been declining over the years, he said.
“Naturally, we expect that the investment would gradually increase to 20 percent of the total budget. Otherwise, we won’t be able to move forward.
“We are spending on many unproductive areas which would not bring any good in the future,” said Professor Serajul Islam Choudhury of Dhaka University.
He noted that the government must make education its top priority for the sake of the country’s future.
“Allocation for education should not be seen just as an allocation, it should be considered as an investment for the future,” he added.
Professor Syed Anwar Husain of History Department at Dhaka University told The New Nation that it is ever the worst budget in the history of Bangladesh though the finance minister claimed that he placed an excellent budget.
“We were hopeful that the allocation in the proposed budget would be good for the education sector. But we depressed after hearing that the allocation was decreased than the previous year,” Professor Anwar said.
He said, “It is very regrettable that the government doesn’t have much attention in the education sector. It will be very difficult to achieve quality education with poor allocation.”
“Anarchy prevails in the education sector. Rule of law has been tarnished from the sector. Now lack of allocation will be definitely a burden to enrich the education sector,” he said.
According to UNESCO, 20 percent of budgetary allocation and 6 percent of the national GDP should be invested for quality education but in Bangladesh it has been around 12 percent with only 2 percent of the GDP, he said.
Rasheda K Choudhury, Executive Director of Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE), said the government has made a global commitment that it would increase the allocation on education to 4 percent of the GDP and 15 percent of the national budget.
“It is not understandable how Bangladesh can achieve the other 16 goals of SDG without achieving the SDG goal on education,” she said.
