I remember the words of a child’s face. A few years ago, I went to a primary school in Chattogram. A third-grade girl was saying, ‘Sir, if there were storybooks in the library, I would read every day. ’ There is no library. There are no storybooks.

There is an allocation for School Level Improvement Plan (SLIP), but there is no provision for purchasing storybooks with that money. The rules dictate buying something else. This single story presents us with the entire crisis of SLIP. The school is told to plan for its improvement. But what to buy, how much to buy, how to buy—everything is predetermined from Dhaka. Is this planning? This is following orders.

Recent research by PPRC has confronted us with a tough question—how much are we investing in primary education in Bangladesh, and how much of that is truly reaching the students? The number is not small. Every year, allocations are made to each school through SLIP. But VAT is deducted. Income tax is deducted. Transportation costs are incurred. There is a significant gap between what is granted and what reaches the schools. In many schools, out of Tk 30,000 allocation, the amount actually usable is Tk 22,000 to Tk 23,000.