Households bear 71pc cost of education

Staff Reporter :
Households in Bangladesh account for 71 per cent of total education expenditure while the rest 29 per cent is shared by the government, according to a report.
The “UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report 2022,” said that the fees and expenses of NGO or private-run schools are three times higher than that of government schools.
The report was released through a programme held at a city hotel on Tuesday.
Education Minister Dr. Dipu Moni and CAMPE’s Executive Director Rasheda K. Choudhury was the chief guest and guest of honour respectively, in the programme.
Director General of Directory of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE) Prof Nehal Ahmed and member of University Grants Commission (UGC) Prof Biswajit Chanda were present as special guests.
Prof Emeritus of BRAC of BRAC University Manzoor Ahmad presented the background study of Bangladesh. Interactive session was moderated by the chairperson of BRAC Hossain Zillur Rahman.
The report showed that families in Pakistan bear 57 per cent of the cost of education, in Nepal, families spend 63 per cent while in India; the top 20 per cent of households spend nearly four times more than the bottom 20 per cent on all types of schools, government, private, and unfunded.
The report added that the expenditure in private kindergartens is nearly nine times higher than that of the public schools.
One-third of Bangladeshi households have to borrow to pay for their children’s private education, according to the report. It also showed that Bangladesh, like some other south Asian countries, spends less than 2.5 per cent of its gross domestic production (GDP) on education while the UN recommends spending at least 4.0 per cent of GDP.
In the decade from 2010 to 2020, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka spent less than 2.5 per cent of their total GDP on education. Quality and relevance of education have therefore become concerns, added the report.
The report further mentioned that Bangladesh has the largest number of students in the private sector in South Asia. 94 per cent of the country’s secondary school students are from private institutions.
Sri Lanka has the highest number of private school students in pre-primary education at 80 per cent, followed by Bangladesh at 55 per cent. On average, Bangladesh has the most private sector dependency in the education sector.
The report found that, despite great progress in access to education in South Asia, investment in education by states remains insufficient.
Except for Bhutan, no other country in the region has ever spent anywhere near 15 per cent of total government spending or 4.0 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) on education.