Allocation for education dips

Education ministries got a chop for the next fiscal year as the proposed development allocation for them is lower than the allocation of the outgoing fiscal year.

Moreover, overall proposed allocation for the two education ministries also decreased. The proposed allocation for the sector for the fiscal year of 2023-24 has also reduced in terms of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal today proposed to allocate only 1.76 percent of the GDP for the education sector, which is less than a third of the Unesco recommendation. Unesco recommends the education sector should have six percent allocation of the total GDP.

In the outgoing fiscal, the education sector had 1.83 percent of GDP.

The proposed development budget for 2023-24 for Ministry of Primary and Mass Education, Secondary and Higher Education Division, and Technical and Madrasa Education Division, stood at 11 percent of total annual development programme (ADP).

It is 0.47 percentage points less than the ADP allocation in the outgoing fiscal.

For the upcoming fiscal, the proposed allocation is Tk 28,927 crore for the development budget of the education sector. The total ADP size is Tk 2,63,000 crore.

Of the total ADP, Tk 12,018 crore or 4.57 percent is for the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education, Tk 14,085 crore or 5.36 percent for the Secondary and Higher Education Division, and Tk 2,823 crore or 1.07 percent for the Technical and Madrasa Education Division.

In the outgoing budget a total of Tk 28,200 crore was allocated in the development budget for the education ministries.

Meanwhile, overall proposed budget for the education ministries for 2023-24 fiscal stood at Tk 88,162 crore, which is 11.57 percent of total budget. In the outgoing fiscal, government allocated Tk 81,449 crore that was 12 percent of total budget.

Today, the finance minister proposed to allocate Tk 34,722 crore for the primary and mass education ministry, Tk 42,838 crore for secondary and higher education division, and Tk 10,602 crore for technical and madrasa education division.

In the outgoing fiscal, government allocated Tk 31,761 crore for the primary and mass education ministry, Tk 39,961 crore for secondary and higher education division, and Tk 9,727 crore for technical and madrasa education division.