Allocation for education still inadequate

Although the budgetary allocation to the education sector rises every year, it is still inadequate for ensuring quality education.

It is because a large portion of the education budget is spent on non-developmental purposes, mainly for teachers' salaries, leaving a little scope for investing in quality education.

Take, for example, the allocation of Tk 15,549 crore to the education ministry in the outgoing 2014-15 fiscal year.

Of the amount, around Tk 5,677 crore was spent on salaries for non-government teachers under the monthly pay order (MPO) scheme, according to budget documents.

Besides, the ministry had to pay salaries, allowances and pensions to its officials and carry out repair and maintenance works.

Against such a background, experts said Bangladesh should invest more in education, especially in quality education, if it wants to change its future and achieve the goals set in the National Education Policy 2010 and Vision 2021.

Lack of qualified teachers and poor school facilities in terms of the number of schools, classrooms and libraries are the main reasons for poor quality education at primary and secondary schools.

The government should put more emphasis on teachers' training so that they can engage the students in classrooms rather than just delivering lectures. More investment should be made in upgrading infrastructures, observed educationists.

They said the government expenditure on education as a proportion of GDP (gross domestic product) has to be increased. The ratio of education budget to GDP has been hovering around two percent for the last few years which is lower than many other Asian countries like Vietnam and Nepal.

In the proposed budget for the 2015-16 fiscal year, there is Tk 31,618 crore for the education sector. The amount is 1.8 percent of the GDP and 10.71 percent of the total budget.

Of the amount, Tk 14,502 crore was earmarked for the primary and mass education ministry, and the rest for the education ministry.

Educationists said the country's inflation continued to rise in the last decade when the education sector witnessed a rapid growth with an increased number of students, teachers and institutions. But the budgetary allocation didn't go up in proportion to the sector's growth.

“I am disappointed with the allocation. The trend shows that we are going backwards,” said Manzoor Ahmed, professor emeritus of Brac University.

Though the size of the national budget has grown in the last few years, the share of the education sector as percentage of the total outlay has been decreasing, he pointed out. In the revised budget of the 2009-10 fiscal year, the allocation was 14.3 percent of the total budget. In the following three fiscal years, the percentages stood at 14, 11.4 and 11.1.But that does not mean the share of allocation should be cut down, he observed.

To sustain the development Bangladesh achieved, health and education are two priority areas that need special allocation, but the proposed budget reflects the opposite, he said.

“It is very unfortunate that the budget said nothing about the universal health coverage [that ensures quality health-care without facing financial burden],” Ahmed said.

The finance minister talked about plans to provide 13,861 mini laptops to community clinics, expanding telemedicine and voucher schemes for the poor mothers, which is fine.

But major health issues like non-communicable diseases and ensuring quality drugs were not mentioned in the budget speech, he said.

“We hope the government will consider all these issues,” he added.