How much attention can a teacher devote to teaching when he is waiting for an opportunity to get a clerical job? Teachers must be freed from the anxiety of having to find alternative livelihoods.

It may be impossible to spend Tk 600,000 per student on the 8.7 million disadvantaged secondary-school students. But surely it should be possible to spend at least Tk 28,800 or Tk 33,300 per student. This would require additional recurring expenditure of roughly Tk 25,000 crore (Tk 250 billion) a year. If necessary, this could be achieved over the next three years by cutting expenditure in other areas. In the days ahead, let education, and health, be our only mega projects. The second Padma Bridge can wait a few more years.

I must mention one positive decision taken by the government. In the 2026–27 fiscal year, Tk 136,000 crore (Tk 1.36 trillion) has been allocated to the education sector, equivalent to about 2 per cent of GDP. This is more than one and a half times the Tk 87,000 crore (Tk 870 billion) allocated in the previous fiscal year. I hope this trend will continue in the coming years. This is because the government has expressed its commitment to raising education spending to 5 per cent of GDP within the next five years.

Education up to the secondary level is the right of every child, and there is no doubt that ensuring this right is the responsibility of the government. At the inauguration of academic activities at Naogaon University on 18 July, Education Minister Ehsanul Haque Milan said that Bangladesh would become an international education hub. It is certainly very pleasant to hear such words. At present, of course, this is a dream. But if we want to achieve something significant in reality, we must first dare to dream. The road to reaching this goal will be long and difficult.