Tk 94,710 cr proposed for education in new budget

Finance Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali  today proposed an allocation of Taka 94,710 crore for education sector in the national budget for 2024-25 fiscal year (FY), which was Taka 88,162 crore in the revised budget of FY 2023-24.

While placing the budget for the next fiscal year, he proposed Taka 38,819 crore for Primary and Mass Education Ministry while the secondary and higher education sector got Taka 44,108 crore which was Tk 42,839 crore in FY2023-24.

The Finance minister proposed Taka 11,783 crore in FY2024-25 for Technical and Madrasa Education Division, which was Tk. 10,602 crore in FY2023-24.

The Finance minister said, “A child’s knowledge base is formed at the primary level of education. Therefore, the impact of primary education on national development is significant and it is one of the main steps to ensure sustainable development.”

While placing the budget for next fiscal year, he said in view of this, new activities will be taken up for the development of this sector besides speeding up the ongoing activities for the development of primary education.

He also said the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman rightly realised the importance of primary education and therefore nationalized 36,165 primary schools in the country in 1973 despite many challenges and shortcomings.

In continuation of this effort, his daughter Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina nationalised 26,193 registered and community private primary schools in 2013 and included the jobs of 1,05,616 teachers in the public sector, the finance minister added.

He said 2,38,579 teachers have been recruited from 2009 to 2023 and 26,366 new posts of assistant teachers have been created to ensure the quality of education and to increase the teacher-student ratio.

As a result, the number of teachers increased from 1 for every 52 students in 2006 to 1 for every 33 students in 2022, the finance said adding primary school teachers are being trained in 5 core and 3 non-core subjects to improve their skills.

Highlighting the initiatives taken by the present government for the development of the education sector, Mahmood Ali said, “Additionally, subject-wise training has been provided to 5.37 lakh teachers in English and Mathematics and other subjects. ICT labs with sophisticated technology have been set up in 67 PTIs for teachers’ training purpose.”

He said alongside the recruitment of teachers, emphasis has been given on the development of infrastructure to ensure that students get a suitable learning environment.

“Since 2009, 1,28,820 classrooms, 65,083 wash blocks and 79,989 tubewells have been installed in government primary schools. At present, construction of 23,385 classrooms and 19,903 wash blocks and installation of 7,563 tube wells are underway,” he added.

Besides, he said “Since 2010, every year free textbooks are distributed to primary level students on 1st January through ‘Book Festival’ so that students can get their books at the very beginning of new year. Since 2017, textbooks and learning materials are also being distributed to 5 ethnic minority groups’ children (pre-primary to class-3) in their own alphabet. In the academic year 2024, a total of 9,38,03,606 textbooks have been distributed to all students of pre-primary, primary level and ethnic minorities group.”

The finance minister said, “With a view to prevent dropout at primary education level, stipend is being provided to 100% students through EFT.”

The Finance minister said the ongoing school feeding program for more than 27 lakh students from 15,470 government primary schools in 104 upazilas of the country through the project titled ‘School Feeding in Poverty-stricken Areas’ has been completed recently.

In continuation of this, a project has been taken up with the aim of starting ‘School Feeding Program’ in all primary schools from 150 upazilas of the country, he added.

“The net enrolment rate in primary education has increased from 90.8 percent in 2009 to 97.56 percent in 2022 as a result of well-thought-out government policies. At the same time, the dropout rate in primary education was 45.1 percent in 2009, which declined to 13.95 percent in 2022,”| Mahmood Ali said.

Integrated education program has been launched to ensure education in mainstream government primary schools for all children of the society including children with special needs at primary level, he said adding wheel chairs, crutches, hearing aids, are being procured and distributed to children with special needs and funds are being allocated based on demand in each upazila for the purchase and distribution of such aids.

Ramps are being constructed in primary schools to facilitate access to classrooms for children with special needs, Mahmood Ali added.

The finance minister said, “Children are the future leaders of this country. Our main goal is to build a smart Bangladesh and therefore steps must be taken from now on to establish this concept in the heart of every child. Taking this into consideration, steps have been taken to modernize the national primary education framework and itsevaluationsystem.”

He said, “More emphasis is being given on technology-based teaching to familiarize children with the use of technology at the elementary stage of education. More than 1 lakh laptops, multimedia projectors, sound-systems with internet have been distributed and multimedia classrooms have been launched in government primary schools.”

The program of setting up modern digital classroom and language lab in one school in each upazila has been taken. Steps will be taken to set up digital classrooms in 3 classrooms in 650 primary schools in disadvantaged areas of the country. Topics like information technology and coding have been included in the syllabus from 2022 onwards in primary class science textbooks with the aim of teaching programming knowledge to future generations so that they can adapt with the digital technologies to meet the challenges of the 4th industrial revolution, the finance minister added.

Along with the formal education, Mahmood Ali said, “The government has been conducting mass education programs and has already achieved significant success. A total of 20,54,763 individuals have been provided with basic literacy through 35 thousand learning centres in 114 upazilas of 60 districts on the occasion of the birth centenary celebrations of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in FY2022-23. Apart from this, the program to bring back the dropout children to the mainstream by ensuring education through non-formal education system is underway and will continue in the future as well.”

He said, “In the next FY2024-25, I am proposing an amount of Tk 38,819 crore for primary and mass education, which was Tk 34,722 crore in the current FY2023-24.”

“Through the dedicated efforts of our government, significant successes have been achieved in the education sector. As a result, Bangladesh secured 129th position out of 192 countries in the Human Development Index, surpassing both India and Pakistan. The enrolment rate at the secondary level has improved to 71.82 percent. The government is undertaking various initiatives for the expansion of education, including the construction and development of educational institutions, financial assistance to students and teachers in the form of scholarships and stipends, and implementing various programs for the developmentof meritorious students,” he added.

The finance minister said supportive policies and conducive environment are being created for the expansion of education. With the aim of building a Smart Bangladesh, a science-based up to date and pragmatic new education curriculum has been introduced from the academic year of 2023. Besides, more than 160 universities are running academic programmes in the country to develop the necessary human resources for building a Smart Bangladesh.

Moreover, he said, “Construction of buildings in 1,533 colleges have been completed under the project titled ‘Development of Selected Non-Government Colleges along with ICT Facilities for Improvement of Qualities of Education’. Besides, development works including the construction of 208 buildings of 70 government colleges through the ‘Development of Post Graduate Government Colleges at the District Head Quarters for Improving Quality of Education’ project and the construction of academic buildings and hostels of 200 government colleges through the project titled ‘The Extension of Science Education Opportunities in Government Colleges’ are underway.”

The finance minister said through the project titled ‘Transformation of Existing Non-Government Schools to Model Schools in Selected Upazilas’ establishment of computer labs and multimedia classrooms in 310 schools have been completed. From 2009 to 2023, construction of buildings has been completed in 13,705 educational institutions, and furniture has been supplied to 9,411 educational institutions.

Under teachers’ training program for the improvement of education 35,61,113 teachers have been trained in various subjects in the last one and a half decade. Notably, in the academic year 2022-23, training has been provided to 2,98,246 class teachers, 29,564 headmasters, and 597 education-related officials on the curriculum expansion topics of class six and seven, he added. (BSS)