‘Make teaching attractive as a profession’

Increasing teachers' salaries and adding benefits to attract talented students to the profession is necessary to improve the quality of education in the country, said speakers at a seminar yesterday.

They also called for a stronger monitoring system with adequate budget allocation to ensure that teachers are fulfilling their responsibilities during a views exchange programme at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the capital.

Titled "Equity Based Budget in Education: Our Expectations," the seminar was organised by Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE).

Deputy Director of CAMPE, Mostafizur Rahman, presented a detailed presentation about the education budget.

He highlighted that student enrollment in primary school increased to 97.56 percent from 94.8 in 2010. The secondary school enrollment rate also rose to 73 percent from 49.5 in the same period.

The education budget as a percentage of GDP has been gradually decreasing over the last few years, falling from 2.49 percent in the 2016-17 fiscal year to 1.76 percent now, he said.

He mentioned that budgetary allocation for education should be at least 15 percent in the next budget, with a roadmap to reach 20 percent by 2026.

He also mentioned a few key challenges, such as inadequate education quality, and a lack of trained teachers impacting quality and the education system's relevance to the job market, which are major concerns.

Earlier, CAMPE organised four district-level and six sub-district-level seminars in the last four months to collect opinions on the topic at the grassroots level.

Fauzia Moslem, president of Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, urged authorities to be accountable and ensure that violence against women is reduced.

Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury, education and cultural affairs adviser to the PM, said the new curriculum requires necessary training for teachers as well as awareness programmes for students and parents.

Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, chairperson of Education Watch, said, "As a country, we don't have that much in terms of assets. So, whatever we have, we need to utilise on a priority basis."

Noorjahan Khatun, additional secretary at the primary and mass education ministry, and Prof Mahbuba Nasreen, Pro-Vice Chancellor of Bangladesh Open University, also spoke at the event.

Rasheda K Chowdhury, Executive Director of CAMPE, moderated the event.