Education is being neglected in the budget as usual

Due to the meager allocation for the education sector, Bangladesh will face growing challenges to graduate from the least developed country status. The proposed allocation of 1.76 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product for the education ministries in the 2023-24 fiscal is the lowest in the past 15 years. It is way less than UNESCO’s recommendation of a four to six percent allocation of the GDP for the sector. Bangladesh’s average education expenditure as a percentage of GDP from 2016 to 2022 was the 5th lowest among 41 least-developed countries.

The country will not achieve the 8th Five Year plan to elevate its allocation for education to three percent of GDP by 2024-2025 fiscal. Since 2009-10, when the Awami League-led 14-party alliance placed its first budget, the sector’s allocation has hovered around two percent of GDP. During this period, the government allocated the highest 2.49 per cent of GDP in 2016-17. The allocation has since fallen gradually over the past seven years and hit rock bottom in the budget for 2023-24 fiscal, which is the last budget of the incumbent government’s current tenure.

Educationists have been calling for increasing the budget for a long time but they don’t see any reflection of their demands. The education budget shows a dismal picture. The budget speech is wonderfully crafted, everything is there. It talks about smart citizens, skilled manpower with values, and ensuring the quality of education. But what is absent in it is the direction about how all of this will happen.
World Bank data shows that Bhutan spent 7.0 per cent of GDP in 2021, India spent 4.5 per cent in 2020, Pakistan 2.4 per cent in 2021, Maldives 5.8 per cent in 2020, Nepal 4.2 per cent in 2020, Sri Lanka 1.9 per cent in 2019 and Afghanistan 2.9 per cent in 2019. Bangladesh is not on the right track of investing in human resources, and its future is in a blink. We must invest in education for the highest return.