The share of education in gross domestic product fell again after the announcement of the proposed national budget for the financial year 2024鈥�25.
The proposed Tk 94,711 crore education budget is 11.88 per cent of the proposed Tk 7,97,000 crore total budget outlay, with its share of GDP of Tk 55,97,414 crore being 1.69 per cent.
In the outgoing FY23鈥�24, the Tk 88,162 crore education allocation was 11.5 per cent of the total budget聽 outlay of Tk 7,61,785 crore, with its share in the Tk 50,06,782 crore GDP being 1.76 per cent.
The share of education in GDP was 1.83 per cent in FY22鈥�23 and 2.08 per cent in FY21鈥�22.
Termed the decreasing share of education in GDP as 鈥榓larming,鈥� Education Watch chairperson and Dhaka School of Economics chairman Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad said that in 2010 when they prepared the National Education Policy, they had proposed to increase it by 4 to 4.5 per cent.聽
Kholiquzzaman urged authorities to complete the development work in the education sector on time to ensure quality education.
Finance minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali on Thursday placed the proposed budget in Jatiya Sangsad.
In his budget speech, he proposed to allocate Tk 38,819 crore for the primary and mass education ministry, which was Tk 34,723 crore in FY24.
He also proposed to allocate Tk 44,109 crore for the Secondary and Higher Education Division under the education ministry, which was Tk 42,837 crore in FY24.
The finance minister also proposed to allocate Tk 11,783 crore in FY25 for the Technical and Madrassah Education Division under the education ministry, which was Tk 10,602 crore in FY24.
According to the proposed budget, Tk 13,573 crore was allocated to the science and technology ministry, down from Tk 13,607 crore in FY24.
In FY25, Tk 2,873 crore was proposed for the Information and Communication Technology Division under the posts, telecommunications, and information technology ministry, which was Tk 2,368 crore in FY24.
The education and technology sectors collectively secured the second position with an 18 per cent allocation.
In his budget speech, the finance minister said that following different government initiatives, the number of teachers increased to 1 for every 33 students in 2022 from 1 for every 52 students in 2006.
Under the teachers鈥� training programme, 35,61,113 teachers have been trained in various subjects in the past one and a half decades, he said.
From the 1 per cent enrolment rate in vocational education in 2010, the enrolment rate increased to 18.17 per cent in 2022, and 28 per cent of them are female, he added.
