THE allocation for education in the national budget proposed for the 2026–27 financial year has been increased to 2 per cent of the estimated gross domestic product for the financial year. Given the Tk 68.30 trillion gross domestic product estimated for the financial year, the allocation for the education sector stands at Tk 1.36 trillion, up by 56.65 per cent from Tk 872.06 billion in the outgoing financial year. The allocation accounts for 14.56 per cent of the budget outlay of Tk 9.38 trillion. The allocation for education was 1.69 per cent of the gross domestic product in the 2025 financial year, 1.76 per cent in the 2024 financial year, 1.83 per cent in the 2023 financial year and 2.08 per cent in the 2022 financial year. This marks a major reversal after four years of a shrinking allocation for education. Of the total education budget, Tk 1.22 trillion has been proposed for spending by the main public education agencies such as the primary and mass education ministry, the Secondary and Higher Education Division and the Technical and Madrassah Education Division.
Whilst such an allocation has raised hopes, fears loom large as budget use is reported to have declined to 85 per cent in the 2025 financial year from 90 per cent in the 2024 financial year. It is in this context that educationists and researchers at a programme on the education budget, which the Campaign for Popular Education organised with support from Education Watch in Dhaka on June 17, called for the allocation to be spent on priority areas, especially to improve teacher quality through further training, better pay and accountability. The speakers at the programme say that no meaningful reform could be effected in the education system unless the social and economic condition of teachers improved. Whilst teachers and students remain at the heart of the education system and everything else is supporting infrastructure, the allocation should be spent on improving the quality of teachers with accountability and compassion, reforming assessment, addressing the learning crisis, focusing on learning outcomes and prioritising important areas in budget implementation. An expert says that whenever the issue of budget cuts came into play, education and health usually suffered whilst physical infrastructure projects went unharmed. Investment in education needs greater attention as any improvement in the sector is qualitative, gradual and less visible than infrastructure development.
The organisers, in such a situation, have called for a national education vision by 2027, the removal of all taxes and duties on the import of learning materials, the timely release of approved development funds and stronger implementation capacity. The hopes that an increased allocation has raised should not be shattered.
