New budget fails to address costly study materials: Experts

The government has proposed a 25% increase in the allocation for the education sector in the FY24 budget, which education experts said is not adequate enough to ensure quality education amid the rising prices of stationery items and study materials.

In the proposed budget, the government has allotted Tk88,162 crore in total for the education sector which was Tk70,507 crore in the revised budget of FY23.

The education budget has been around 12% in recent years including the new one, despite demands from the educationists to push it to 20% of the national budget.

Besides, the new proposed allocation is 1.76% of the GDP, which is less than a third of the Unesco recommended 4%-6%.

Experts in the field criticised the proposal to impose a 15% VAT on ballpoint pens at the production level by saying guardians are already struggling to pay for their children's school supplies. 

The prices of stationery items and study materials have gone up significantly, putting thousands of guardians, already struggling to cope with surging prices of essentials, in a tight corner.

They are paying 15%-25% more than what they used to pay before August for school supplies such as notebooks, exercise books, pens, pencils, calculators and geometry boxes.

An increase of Tk17,654 crore in allocation in the education sector is insignificant because of the growing prices of goods in the country, Professor Siddiqur Rahman, a member of National Education Policy 2010, and former director, Institute of Education and Research, Dhaka University, told The Business Standard.

The loss of education due to Covid-19 is yet to be recovered, he said. Students are taught in a short syllabus which is affecting various competitive exams including university admission exams. 

"This issue has not been addressed in the budget," he added.

"It is evident from the budget allocation that we do not have the proper understanding of education. It is a very poor figure when compared to GDP," former Buet professor Dr Mohammad Kaykobad told TBS.

"Productivity should be boosted through technology in education.   Universities are lagging behind in the world rankings because they don't have it now," added Kaykobad.

However, whatever has been allotted should not be wasted, he added.

Meanwhile, it has been proposed to allocate Tk34,722 crore for primary and mass education, which was Tk31,761 crore in FY 2022-23.

Around Tk42,838 crore has been proposed for the secondary and higher education sector in the new budget, which was Tk39,961 crore in the outgoing fiscal year.

Besides, Tk10,602 crore has been proposed for the Technical and Madrasa Education Division in the new budget, which was Tk9,727 crore in FY23.

The finance minister mentioned the efforts of the government to enhance the interest of the people of the country in technical education.

"It is evident in the enrollment rate in technical education in 2022 which is 17.2% compared to just 1% in 2010," he said. 

"We need to increase the enrollment rate in technical education to 30% by 2030 to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. We are working tirelessly to achieve this goal," he added.

"Through the project titled "Promoting Gender Responsive Enterprise Development in TVET System (ProGRESS)", we will provide skill-based training to 10,000 "Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET)" communities and assist 250 women to become entrepreneurs," he further said.

ADP in education 

The proposed development budget for FY24 for the education sector stood at 11.36% of total annual development programme (ADP).

The development budget in the sector has increased 62% from revised ADP allocation of FY23.

For the upcoming fiscal, the proposed allocation is Tk 29,889 crore for the development budget of the education sector. The total ADP size is Tk 2,63,000 crore.

School feeding programme 

Education experts praised the declaration of formulation of the Primary School Feeding Programme for the next 4 years and the training of a total of 4,000 education managers and teachers.

However, they think the amount is still inadequate.

The ongoing school feeding programme for more than 29 lakh students of 15,470 government primary schools in 104 upazilas of 35 districts of the country through the project titled "School Feeding in Poverty-stricken Areas" has been completed recently.

An allocation of around Tk1,200 crore has been proposed for the school feeding programme to prevent dropouts by providing nutritious meals to students and ensuring their continued participation in the education system.