Spend more on education

More budget allocation for education is needed as the return on investment in it is more compared to other sectors, stressed discussants at a seminar yesterday.

They said high dropout rates at secondary school and lack of quality education remain key challenges while sufficient budget allocation can play a vital role in achieving due results.

In terms of percentage of GDP, the country spends only around 2 percent for education, which remained almost static for the last one decade. The allocation of budget for education is 2.4 percent of the GDP for the 2016-17 fiscal year.

Brac in association with Copenhagen Consensus Centre arranged the seminar on “Bangladesh Education Policy Priorities” in Brac Centre Inn in Dhaka.

In his keynote paper on “Promotion of Girls' Education, Delayed Age at First Birth, and Child Nutritional Status in Bangladesh”, North South University Assistant Professor Ahsan Zaman said more investment is required for female education as it can prevent child marriage.

Dhaka University Associate Professor Atonu Rabbani, in his keynote paper, focused on investment in early childhood development.

Besides, DU Professor SM Hafizur Rahman presented another keynote paper. He emphasised establishing more educational institutions in remote areas.

Shafiqul Islam, director of Brac Education Programme, said with changing employment pattern for technological development it is important to conduct research on what will be the basic alignment of skill development in future.

Speaking as chief guest, Primary and Mass Education Minister Advocate Mostafizur Rahman said the government is allocating sufficient budget in the education sector as per requirement.

Chowdhury Mufad Ahmed, additional secretary of the Ministry of Education, also spoke.