Budgetary Allocation: Education gets far less than it requires

Due to meagre allocation for the education sector, Bangladesh will face growing challenges to graduate from the least developed country status, say economists and educationists.

The proposed allocation of 1.76 percent 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 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, according to data presented by the Centre for Policy Dialogue in its post-budget discussion.

Economists say that with this decreasing trend, the country will not achieve the 8th Five Year plan to elevate its allocation for education to three percent of GDP by the 2024-2025 fiscal.

"It comes as a shock that Bangladesh's education budget is one of the lowest among the LDCs," says Fahmida Khatun, executive director of the CPD.

"More economic efficiency will be needed after graduation from the LDC status. We will not get that efficiency with the current standard of education," she adds.

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 percent of GDP in 2016-17. The allocation has since fallen gradually over the past seven years and hit rock bottom in the budget for the 2023-24 fiscal, which is the last budget of the incumbent government's current tenure.

For the next fiscal, the government has allocated Tk 80,000 crore for the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education, the Secondary and Higher Education Division, and the Technical and Madrasa Education Division.

In his budget speech for the next fiscal, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal gave emphasis on enhancing the quality of education at all levels.

"Today's children will make our dream of a developed-prosperous-smart Bangladesh a reality. Therefore, we want to enable students to face all upcoming challenges mainly arising from the fourth industrial revolution and climate change, and move forward. Our aim is to provide science based, technology-based, skill-enhancing, and creativity-supportive education that will instil in them the spirit of delivering services …," he said.

Educationists, however, say that they did not find any direction from the finance minister about how these targets will be fulfilled.

Rasheda K Choudhury, executive director of Campaign for Popular Education, says that education campaigners 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," she adds.

The CPD in its post budget presentation, titled "An Analysis of the National Budget for FY2023-24", said that on an average, at least 35 LDCs spent two percent or more of their GDP on education from 2016 to 2022. In the same period, Bangladesh's average education expenditure was 1.8 percent of GDP. And only Somalia with 0.2 percent, Haiti with 1.5 percent, South Sudan with 1.5 percent and Central African Republic with 1.8 percent, remain behind Bangladesh.

Somalia, South Sudan and Central African Republic are African countries that are riven by conflicts. In these countries, economic and social development continues to be hindered by political instability and increasing violence. On the other hand, gang violence has been paralysing the Caribbean country Haiti, fuelling the resurgence of cholera and extreme levels of food insecurity.

Among the LDC countries, Myanmar spends on education 2.1 percent of GDP, Congo and Uganda 2.2 percent, Chad 2.5 percent, Cambodia 2.6 percent, Rwanda 3.3 percent, Senegal and Ethiopia 5.1 percent and Sierra Leone 6.7 percent, according to the CPD.

Meanwhile, data released by World Bank shows that Bangladesh's average education expenditure as a percentage of GDP is less than that of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The global lender data also shows that Bhutan spent on education 7.0 percent of GDP in 2021, India spent 4.5 percent in 2020, Pakistan 2.4 percent in 2021, Maldives 5.8 percent in 2020, Nepal 4.2 percent in 2020, Sri Lanka 1.9 percent in 2019 and Afghanistan 2.9 percent in 2019.

Prof Abu Eusuf, director of Dhaka University's Centre on Budget and Policy, said that education has a relation to the creation of employability. With such meagre allocation, it is hardly possible that education can contribute to the employment sector. "Currently, We are producing graduates but we are not producing productive graduates," he said.

"We don't see any steps to enhance the skills of job seekers. Overall, the research sector did not get due importance in the budget," he added.

Both Rasheda and Eusuf have pointed out that the finance minister did not give any specific allocations to address the issue of learning loss faced by students due to long-term closures of educational institutions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Fahmida says that the government provides less allocation for education as its priorities lie in physical infrastructure.