Education ministry is towards the bottom in getting budgetary allocation among the top 10 priority-based ministries. Whereas some ministries have got Tk 16,000 crore for development purposes, the education ministry was allocated only Tk 4,000 crore.
This was how Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid expressed his disappointment in parliament over the poor budgetary allocation for his ministry while participating in general discussion on the proposed budget for 2015-16 fiscal.
In the proposed budget for the 2015-16 fiscal year, Tk 31,618 crore has been allocated for the education sector, which is 10.71 percent of the total budget.
The education ministry, however, will get Tk 17,116 crore, of which Tk 4,000 has been earmarked for development purposes only. The rest of the money will go to the primary and mass education ministry.
“What will I do with this amount of money? Will I spend it over giving salaries of teachers and staffs or building infrastructures?” Nahid said.
In the revised budget of the 2009-10 fiscal year, the allocation for the education sector was 14.3 percent of the total budget. It has since continued to drop, he observed.
Demanding more allocation for his ministry, he said," Honourable Speaker, I urge the finance minister through you to allocate more money for education to turn students into human capital.”
Pointing to the need for various changes in universities and colleges, he pleaded, "We need to develop infrastructures and increase salaries of staffs. The number of total students and people involved in this sector is more than 5.5 crore. Please tell me if I should prioritise building infrastructures or increasing salaries."
He also highlighted lawmakers' demand for building schools and colleges in their respective areas as well as bringing more educational institutions under the MPO.
“I wholeheartedly support your demand. But how will I do that with this little sum of allocation?” he questioned.
Nahid said even a country like Kenya allocates 31 percent of its total budget for education.
Nahid said Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had said the education sector should get at least six percent of the country's GDP. “But in the proposed budget we have got only 4.03 percent.”
In his speech, Nahid strongly objected to the finance minister's budget speech in which he mentioned that although education at primary and tertiary levels has improved, the picture is not bright at secondary level.
Nahid said even the government's opposition will not make such statements.
Nahid said development of our education at any level should not be compared with the USA, rather it should be compared to that of the previous BNP government." (taken from the daily Star, Bangladesh)
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